Professional paper
Transmission of pathogens and the wildlife livestock interface: an overview of the current knowledge and status in Croatia
Dean Konjević
orcid.org/0000-0002-8584-9825
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
*
Miljenko Bujanić
orcid.org/0009-0000-1421-3339
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Darko Želježić
; Croatian veterinary institute
Matija Jandrilović
Tomislav Jelić
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
The wildlife-livestock interface is the name given to areas (habitats) simultaneously shared by wild and domestic animals. Although this concept has been present since the first domestication of animals, it has recently gained greater significance due to habitat fragmentation, the expansion of settlements, and the increasing contact between domestic and wild animals. Today, this interrelationship is divided into three main categories:
the predator-prey relationship, the competitive relationship for food, and the transmission of pathogens, to which we can add the problem of hybridization. In the case of pathogen transmission, it is possible to distinguish between transmission of previously known pathogens, and that of new agents to which the animals in these areas are not accustomed. In the latter case, this may result in a decline in the host populations, and even in the local disappearance of certain species. This paper presents an overview of a canine distemper outbreak in Serengeti lions, the occurrence of African swine fever in Europe, and trematodes in Croatia. In these cases, it is possible to discuss the spread of pathogens from wild to domestic animals and vice versa, the potentially protective role of certain species, the modification of agents, and the crossing of the interspecies barrier. It is very clear that the wildlife - livestock interface represents a dynamic environment within which the exchange of pathogens occurs, both those that are well-known and new ones for that specific habitat. Special attention
should be paid to endangered species of domestic and wild animals, but also to veterinary and public health. The issues involved in this relationship are complex and require an individual approach, with the aim of improving the management of both wild and domestic species.
Keywords
wildlife-livestock interface; transmission of pathogens; veterinary-public health; species conservation
Hrčak ID:
336259
URI
Publication date:
6.10.2025.
Visits: 390 *