Use of extensive farm resources by big game and interaction with livestock in a tuberculosis endemic area from South Central Spain

Resumen del póster presentado al XXXth International Union of Game Biologists and Perdix XIII, celebrados en Barcelona (España) del 5 al 9 de septiembre de 2011.Increased interactions at the domestic livestock-wildlife interface, especially in open air livestock breeding situation is favoured by territorial expansion and population growth of wild ungulates. The aggregation of resources that are commonly used by both domestic and wild individuals results in spatial and/or temporal overlap among them. We describe and quantify the presence of wild ungulates in food and water sources used by extensive livestock in South Central Spain (province of Ciudad Real) by using infrared camera trapping in 9 open air livestock herds. In summer season we documented visits to farms by red deer (67%), red fox (16.3%), wild boar (15.3%) and roe deer (1.4%). 90.4% were detected in water sources (troughs or water holes), 2.7% in outdoor feeders (troughs or on the ground) and 6.9% in control points. In autumn survey 81.1% of visits were due to red deer, 13.5% wild boar, 3.8% red fox and 2.2% roe deer. No visitations were detected in farm buildings. Although domestic and wild ungulates shared the same drinking and food areas, we hardly ever document both in the same picture (just one case series in a control point involving pigs and red deer). They partitioned use temporally, especially wild boar, more frequent in nocturnal hours. We detected an important proportion of days with red deer and wild boar presence (1 every 4 days and 5 days, respectively, in summer). Increased concentration of animals visiting the same locations seeking drinking water could lead to indirect transmission of the disease within and between both wildlife and livestock. Excluding large wildlife species and reducing the attractiveness of the farm to them and providing alternative water sources to limiting access to wildlife could reduce disease transmission.Peer reviewe