Article
Plant Sciences
Youhua Chen, Ren-Hong Wang, Tsung-Jen Shen
Summary: Conducting biodiversity surveys using a fully randomised design can be difficult due to budgetary constraints, site accessibility, and other constraints. The commonly used biodiversity estimators may not perform well when applied to non-independent sampling of individuals. In this study, a Markov chain model is utilized to account for non-independence in sequential sampling, and the estimators perform reasonably well in empirical tests.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Review
Food Science & Technology
Caterina Altissimi, Clara Noe-Nordberg, David Ranucci, Peter Paulsen
Summary: Wild boars can carry various foodborne pathogens, posing a risk to food safety. Although the prevalence of pathogens on wild boar meat varies, their transmission through the food chain remains a significant concern. It is recommended to strengthen the evaluation of current game meat inspection and food safety management systems.
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Oliver Keuling, Egbert Strauss, Ursula Siebert
Summary: High wild boar population densities can result in human-wildlife conflicts, necessitating a better understanding of both wildlife biology and human attitudes for effective wildlife management. In Lower Saxony, Germany, hunting methods vary but single hunt and drive hunts are common, with private hunting being crucial for wild boar management. Recommendations include promoting more efficient hunting methods and establishing administrative wildlife managers for coordination in the future.
Article
Ecology
Anja Hutschenreiter, Gabriel Ramos-Fernandez, Filippo Aureli
Summary: When surveying Geoffroy's spider monkeys in a flat landscape of tropical forest with homogenous visibility, line-transect sampling was found to be more efficient than point-transect sampling. However, when controlling for the size of the survey area, more spider monkeys were detected at point transects. More monkey detections were made during the first 10 minutes than during the second and third 10-minute periods of point-transect surveys.
Article
Ecology
Timothy A. Gowan, Nathan J. Crum, Jason J. Roberts
Summary: Wildlife population studies aim to estimate density, movement, and demographic parameters, linking these to covariates like habitat features for ecological insights and management predictions. Different methods such as line-transect surveys and capture-recapture are used for estimation, with recent developments in open population spatial capture-recapture models to estimate density and demographic parameters simultaneously. The model discussed in the text can integrate data from various sources, model variation in density, and demographic parameters as a function of habitat covariates.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Thomas V. Riecke, Daniel Gibson, James S. Sedinger, Michael Schaub
Summary: This paper explores the use of count distributions to estimate the observation process in capture-mark-recapture studies, and demonstrates its ability to accurately recover demographic and observation parameters.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Younes Laidoudi, Bernard Davoust, Stephanie Watier-Grillot, Aurelie Oger, Marie-Frederique Le Potier, Celine Deblanc
Summary: In this study, muscle fluid from wild boars in southeastern France was serologically screened for anti-Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) antibodies. The results showed that approximately 30.33% of the tested animals had positive reactions for anti-glycoprotein B antibodies against ADV. The study confirmed the importance of wild boars in the epidemiology of ADV in southeastern France, with geographical location and animal age having a significant impact on ADV seroprevalence.
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Sergio Santos-Silva, Danny Franciele da Silva Dias Moraes, Pedro Lopez-Lopez, Josman D. Palmeira, Rita T. Torres, Maria Sao Jose Nascimento, Alejandro Dashti, David Carmena, Antonio Rivero-Juarez, Joao R. Mesquita
Summary: The study found the presence of potentially zoonotic protozoa and Hepatitis E virus (HEV) in wild boar populations in Portugal. Parasites such as Cryptosporidium scrofarum, Balantioides coli, and Blastocystis ST5, as well as HEV genotype 3, were detected. This highlights the need for enhanced surveillance and prevention measures targeting wild boar to prevent the spread of these pathogens to humans.
Article
Veterinary Sciences
Ferenc Janoska, Eszter Nagy, Tamas Tari, Rebeka Rahel Nagy, Tibor Halasz, Gyula Varga, Melinda Kovacs, Peter Kemenszky, Gabor Nagy, Agnes Csivincsik
Summary: African swine fever (ASF) is a fatal animal disease that greatly impacts human well-being, especially in vulnerable communities. The main vector of the disease is wild boar, although anthropogenic factors play a role in long-distance spread. This study discovered that hunting assistant personnel in Hungary pose a potential risk in spreading ASF, particularly due to the existence of unregistered pig farming and inadequate biosecurity measures.
VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Heather E. Gaya, Lora L. Smith, Clinton T. Moore
Summary: Line-transect distance sampling (LTDS) surveys are commonly used to estimate the abundance of animals or objects. In this study, the researchers proposed a method to control for detection bias caused by spatially heterogeneous vegetation obstruction in terrestrial LTDS surveys of gopher tortoise burrows. By measuring ground-level vegetation as a covariate, the researchers were able to improve the accuracy of density estimation. The study found that failure to consider vegetation obstruction can lead to underestimation of population size and proportion of individuals with small burrow sizes.
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Ji-Min Rim, Sun-Woo Han, Yoon-Kyoung Cho, Jun-Gu Kang, Kyoung-Seong Choi, Hyesung Jeong, Kidong Son, Jisoo Kim, Yongjun Choi, Won-Meong Kim, Nam-Hyuk Cho, Joon-Seok Chae
Summary: This study detected SFTSV antigen and antibody in wild boar in Korea. A portion of the serum samples tested positive, and the distribution of different genotypes was shown through ELISA and IFA tests.
TICKS AND TICK-BORNE DISEASES
(2021)
Article
Statistics & Probability
Hassan S. Bakouch, Christophe Chesneau, Rawda I. Abdullah
Summary: The paper proposes a new two-parameter detection model for modeling line transect data and considers the maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters. Through application to a practical data set and comparison with goodness-of-fit statistics, confidence intervals of the parameters and estimated population abundance are obtained under the proposed detection model.
COMMUNICATIONS IN STATISTICS-THEORY AND METHODS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Joel S. Ruprecht, Charlotte E. Eriksson, Tavis D. Forrester, Darren A. Clark, Michael J. Wisdom, Mary M. Rowland, Bruce K. Johnson, Taal Levi
Summary: Spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models and camera-based generalized spatial mark-resight (gSMR) models produced density estimates that were consistent for black bears, cougars, and coyotes, but SCR estimates were 33% higher than gSMR estimates for bobcats. Unmarked models yielded widely varying density estimates compared to SCR, but models with more identifiable individuals produced more consistent results. Hybrid models incorporating all data sources gave the most precise estimates across all species.
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Kathryn Knights, Michael A. McCarthy, James Camac, Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita
Summary: The study introduces a method to improve the efficiency of distance sampling in high density target species by measuring only a proportion of targets to model the detection function and using the saved time to cover longer total length of transect. This approach can enhance the precision of population density estimates within a fixed survey budget, and the simulations indicate that the optimized method could increase precision by 20% to 50%.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
L. Fattorini, P. Bongi, A. Monaco, M. Zaccaroni
Summary: The evaluation of wild boar density in a hunting district is important for effective hunting. This study proposes an objective design-based approach that randomly selects drive areas for each hunting team. Different sampling strategies are compared through simulation and case studies to determine the most suitable method.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECOLOGICAL STATISTICS
(2022)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Philip Weyl, Gorban Ali Asadi, Massimo Cristofaro, Biljana Vidovic, Radmila Petanovic, Francesca Marini, Urs Schaffner
BIOCONTROL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
M. Cristofaro, G. Roselli, F. Marini, E. de Lillo, R. U. Petanovic, B. Vidovic, M. Auge, B. G. Rector
BIOCONTROL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Francesca Marini, Biljana Vidovic, Simone Lonis, Maria Irene Wibawa, Enrico de Lillo, Javid Kashefi, Massimo Cristofaro, Lincoln Smith
Summary: The study found that Aceria salsolae is unlikely to pose a risk to non-target plants in field conditions, and it is difficult to multiply in large numbers on these non-target plants under field conditions.
BIOLOGICAL CONTROL
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Simon Croft, Barbara Franzetti, Robin Gill, Giovanna Massei
Article
Zoology
Hossein Lotfalizadeh, Jean-Yves Rasplus, Massimo Cristofaro, Francesca Marini
Article
Environmental Sciences
Maraja Riechers, Lucia Fanini, Annalisa Apicella, Carolina Batista Galvan, Elise Blondel, Begona Espina, Simone Kefer, Tristan Keroulle, Katja Klun, Tania R. Pereira, Francesca Ronchi, Pedro Ruiz Rodriguez, Haritz Sardon, Alexandra Viana Silva, Maris Stulgis, Nagore Ibarra-Gonzalez
Summary: The conference report summarizes the current challenges of researching microplastics pollution in the ocean as debated by international experts and stakeholders, resulting in proposed actions including filtering microplastics, using mandatory ecolabels on plastic products packages, and implementing a circular economy of packaging plastics.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2021)
Article
Entomology
Riccardo Moretti, Francesca Marini, Elena Lampazzi, Maurizio Calvitti
Summary: The study found that Aedes vexans is not highly suitable for control strategies based on Wolbachia due to low mating propensity, low male survival, reduced hatchability of collected eggs, and inefficiency in transmitting Wolbachia strains vertically. Transinfection of the bacterium through various methods was attempted but was not successful in establishing a stable infection in the mosquito population.
ENTOMOLOGIA EXPERIMENTALIS ET APPLICATA
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Marlene Gamelon, Laura Touzot, Eric Baubet, Jessica Cachelou, Stefano Focardi, Barbara Franzetti, Eveline Nivois, Lara Veylit, Bernt-Erik Saether
Summary: This study fills the knowledge gap regarding the effects of mast seeding on the dynamics of seed consumer populations, revealing heterogeneity in demographic responses to mast seeding within and among populations. The results show that acorn production has positive effects on reproduction and growth of small-sized females, with survival being less influenced, indicating variation in demographic responses to mast seeding.
Review
Entomology
Francesca Marini, Philip Weyl, Biljana Vidovic, Radmila Petanovic, Jeffrey Littlefield, Sauro Simoni, Enrico de Lillo, Massimo Cristofaro, Lincoln Smith
Summary: Eriophyid mites are tiny creatures that feed on plants and reproduce quickly, potentially serving as effective biological control agents for invasive plants due to their host specificity. However, working with these mites is challenging due to their small size and lack of knowledge about their biology, behavior, and dispersal methods, which may hinder the evaluation of their effectiveness in control programs.
Article
Entomology
Francesca Marini, Erica Profeta, Biljana Vidovic, Radmila Petanovic, Enrico de Lillo, Philip Weyl, Hariet L. Hinz, Chandra E. Moffat, Marie-Claude Bon, Tatjana Cvrkovic, Javid Kashefi, Rene F. H. Sforza, Massimo Cristofaro
Summary: The mite Aculus mosoniensis was found to only reproduce on tree of heaven and did not cause damage to any other tested plant species, making it a safe and promising biological control agent for the highly invasive tree species.
Article
Ecology
Giacomo Santini, Milo Abolaffio, Federico Ossi, Barbara Franzetti, Francesca Cagnacci, Stefano Focardi
Summary: The study investigates statistical models for estimating population size using camera traps when animals cannot be individually recognized. It finds that under ideal conditions, reliable population estimates can be obtained, but when animals' movement speeds differ, none of the models provide unbiased and precise density estimates. The models are highly sensitive to the method used for estimating the camera traps' field of view range and biases in estimating animal speeds. The study provides guidelines for wildlife managers and practitioners on how to use these statistical models for population size estimates.
BASIC AND APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Entomology
Enrico de Lillo, Francesca Marini, Massimo Cristofaro, Domenico Valenzano, Radmila Petanovic, Biljana Vidovic, Tatjana Cvrkovic, Marie-Claude Bon
Summary: Tree of heaven, also known as Ailanthus altissima, is a deciduous tree native to China but introduced to North America and Europe for ornamental purposes. It has shown invasive characteristics in urban and suburban areas, posing a threat to ecosystems. Current management methods are insufficient, and a multi-tactic approach focusing on biological control is suggested.
Article
Entomology
Biljana Vidovic, Nikola Andelkovic, Vida Jojic, Tatjana Cvrkovic, Radmila Petanovic, Francesca Marini, Massimo Cristofaro, Brian G. Rector
Summary: A new species of mite, Aculodes marcelli sp. nov., was discovered infesting cheatgrass plants in central Bulgaria. The discovery was made using morphological, morphometric analysis, and DNA barcoding. This new mite species will be further tested as a potential biological control agent for cheatgrass.
Letter
Ecology
Giacomo Santini, Milo Abolaffio, Federico Ossi, Barbara Franzetti, Francesca Cagnacci, Stefano Focardi
BASIC AND APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Stefano Focardi, Valentina La Morgia, Paolo Montanaro, Francesco Riga, Alessandro Calabrese, Francesca Ronchi, Paola Aragno, Marianne Scacco, Roberta Calmanti, Barbara Franzetti