Nasal shedding of in wild boar is related to generalised tuberculosis and concomitant infections.

Background: Wild boar is an important reservoir of variant , the main causative agent of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). A proportion of tuberculosis (TB)-affected wild boars shed by nasal route, favouring the maintenance of bTB in a multihost scenario. The aim of this work was to assess if nasal excretion is influenced by factors commonly associated with high TB prevalence in wild boar.

Methods: TB diagnosis and isolation were carried out in 112 hunted wild boars from mid-western Spain. The association between the presence of DNA in nasal secretions and explanatory factors was explored using partial least squares regression (PLSR) approaches.

Results: DNA from was detected in 40.8 per cent nasal secretions of the TB-affected animals. Explanatory factors provided a first significant PLSR X's component, explaining 25.70 per cent of the variability observed in nasal shedding. The presence of in nasal secretions is more probable in animals suffering from generalised TB and mainly coinfected with species and porcine circovirus type 2, explaining nearly 90 per cent of the total variance of this model.

Conclusion: Measures aiming to control these factors could be useful to reduce shedding in wild boar.