Epidemiological impacts of attenuated African swine fever virus circulating in wild boar populations.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) genotype II has been present in wild boar in the European Union since 2014. Control measures have reduced the incidence of the ASF, but highly virulent as well as attenuated ASFV strains continue to circulate. We present the intraherd epidemiological parameters of low and highly virulent ASFV in wild boar from experimental data, and for the first time, evaluate the impact of attenuated strain circulation through unique deterministic compartmental model simulations under various potential scenarios and hypotheses.

Large-scale study on virological and serological prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in cats and dogs in Spain.

The disease produced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is currently one of the primary concerns worldwide. Knowing the zoonotic origin of the disease and that several animal species, including dogs and cats, are susceptible to viral infection, it is critical to assess the relevance of pets in this pandemic. Here, we performed a large-scale study on SARS-CoV-2 serological and viral prevalence in cats and dogs in Spain in order to elucidate their role and susceptibility.

An advection-deposition-survival model to assess the risk of introduction of vector-borne diseases through the wind: Application to bluetongue outbreaks in Spain.

This work develops a methodology for estimating risk of wind-borne introduction of flying insects into a country, identifying areas and periods of high risk of vector-borne diseases incursion. This risk can be characterized by the role of suitable temperatures and wind currents in small insects' survival and movements, respectively. The model predicts the number density of introduced insects over space and time based on three processes: the advection due to wind currents, the deposition on the ground and the survival due to climatic conditions.

Motion-based video monitoring for early detection of livestock diseases: The case of African swine fever.

Early detection of infectious diseases can substantially reduce the health and economic impacts on livestock production. Here we describe a system for monitoring animal activity based on video and data processing techniques, in order to detect slowdown and weakening due to infection with African swine fever (ASF), one of the most significant threats to the pig industry. The system classifies and quantifies motion-based animal behaviour and daily activity in video sequences, allowing automated and non-intrusive surveillance in real-time.

Evaluation of the risk of classical swine fever (CSF) spread from backyard pigs to other domestic pigs by using the spatial stochastic disease spread model Be-FAST: the example of Bulgaria.

The study presented here is one of the very first aimed at exploring the potential spread of classical swine fever (CSF) from backyard pigs to other domestic pigs. Specifically, we used a spatial stochastic spread model, called Be-FAST, to evaluate the potential spread of CSF virus (CSFV) in Bulgaria, which holds a large number of backyards (96% of the total number of pig farms) and is one of the very few countries for which backyard pigs and farm counts are available. The model revealed that, despite backyard pigs being very likely to become infected, infections from backyard pigs to other domestic pigs were rare.