Figure 1.
Map of Switzerland and Liechtenstein depicting the origin of samples and microbiological results.
Animal species: red deer (square); wild boar (triangle); other species (circle). Microbiological results: survey samples negative for mycobacteria of the M. tuberculosis-complex (MTBC; green); MTBC-positive survey samples (red); scanning surveillance samples (all MTBC negative; orange). Study areas (dark grey): Geneva (GE); Thurgovia (TG); Saint Gall (SG); Principality of Liechtenstein (FL); Grisons (GR); Tessin (TI). Further: cantonal borders (grey lines); main lakes (blue areas).
Table 1.
Study areas, hunting bags for wild boar and red deer, and red deer population size estimation.
Table 2.
Sex and age distribution per study area of hunted wild boar and red deer sampled from 2009–2011 in Switzerland and in Liechtenstein.
Figure 2.
Bilateral tuberculosis-like lesions in the mandibular lymph nodes of a wild boar.
This sample was positive for mycobacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex on tissue material, but yielded only atypical mycobacteria in culture. Scale: centimeters.
Figure 3.
Macroscopic and microbiological results, wild boar.
Real-time PCR from tissue material (PCRT) and real-time PCR from culture (PCRC) for the detection of mycobacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis-complex (MTBC). Positive mycobacterial cultures negative by PCRC were classified as atypical mycobacteria. Cultures were considered positive if typical growth occurred and acid-fast bacilli were subsequently detected with Ziehl-Neelsen staining.
Figure 4.
Macroscopic and microbiological results, red deer.
Real-time PCR from tissue material (PCRT) and real-time PCR from culture (PCRC) for the detection of mycobacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis-complex (MTBC). Positive mycobacterial cultures negative by PCRC were classified as atypical mycobacteria. Cultures were considered positive if typical growth occurred and acid-fast bacilli were subsequently detected with Ziehl-Neelsen staining.
Figure 5.
Risk factors favoring the maintenance of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in reservoir host populations.
Table 3.
Population densities and prevalences of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in documented wildlife maintenance and spillover hosts.
Table 4.
Assessment of the situation in our study areas regarding risk factors for bTB maintenance.
Figure 6.
Increase of population numbers and hunting bags of red deer and wild boar in Switzerland.
Red deer counts (black line); red deer hunting bag (dashed line); wild boar hunting bag (dotted line). No wild boar counts available. (Source: Swiss hunting statistics: http://www.wild.uzh.ch/jagdst/).