Publications by authors named "Vilem A"

The wild boar () is a social animal species native to Eurasia. During the last decade, the wild boar population in Estonia has been severely affected by the African swine fever virus (ASFV), which has also affected domestic pig farming. The potential transmission routes of ASFV remain unclear and are currently under intensive investigation.

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The African swine fever virus (ASFV) was first detected in Estonia, in September 2014. In the subsequent three years, the virus spread explosively all over the country. Only one county, the island of Hiiumaa, remained free of the disease.

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African swine fever (ASF) is a highly pathogenic viral disease affecting all Suidae, with Ornithodoros moubata complex soft ticks acting as the biological arthropod vectors of the causative agent, African swine fever virus (ASFV). While ASFV is also transmissible via direct contact, pig products and fomites, other arthropods may be involved in virus transmission and persistence. Therefore, we checked various groups of blood-feeding arthropods collected during summer 2017 in wild boar habitats on the Estonian Island of Saaremaa for the presence of ASFV.

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In this study, we summarize findings from four wild, free-ranging host species from Estonia during 2007-2014. spp. larvae were detected in 281 (0.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Molecular characterization of ASFV isolates identified a new variant called GII-CVR2 in 2015, confirmed only in a small area of southern Estonia, and another variant GII-CVR1/SNP1 was identified in late 2016.
  • * Despite the presence of these variants, their spread has been limited geographically within Estonia and no reports of these specific variants have emerged from other affected European countries.
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Background: African swine fever (ASF), a severe multi-systemic disease in pigs, was introduced into Estonia in 2014. The majority of outbreaks have occurred during the summer months. Given that ASFV is transmitted in a sylvatic cycle that includes the transmission by African soft ticks and that mechanical transmission by flying insects was shown, transmission by other arthropod vectors need to be considered.

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Background: Raccoon dogs and red foxes are well-adapted hosts for Trichinella spp. The aims of this study were to estimate Trichinella infection prevalence and biomass and to investigate which Trichinella species circulated in these indicator hosts in Estonia.

Methods: From material collected for evaluating the effectiveness of oral vaccination program for rabies eradication in wildlife, samples from 113 raccoon dogs and 87 red foxes were included in this study.

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African swine fever (ASF) is a notifiable disease with serious socio-economic consequences that has been present in wild boar in the Baltic States and Poland since 2014. An introduction of ASF is usually accompanied by increased mortality, making fallen wild boar and hunted animals with signs of disease the main target for early warning and passive surveillance. It is difficult, however, to encourage hunters and foresters to report and take samples from these cases.

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