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Background: In Europe, the African swine fever (ASF) pandemic mostly affects the environmental domain of health, which is a strongly human‐impacted ecosystem. However, the current control strategies focus solely on the wild boar and tend to disregard other epidemiologically relevant elements of the ecosystem. Objectives: This study investigated the potential impact of the golden jackal on the surveillance effort and disease transmission. Methods: For this reason, the authors analysed the content of 277 stomachs of this canid species within its westernmost inhabitant population, in order to determine the amount of suid remains, disposed. Results: The findings confirmed that in a densely populated wild boar habitat, the main diet component of jackals was wild boar all the year round. The jackals disposed of 0.3–0.6 kg/km2/day offals that potentially contained suid remains. On the other hand, the scavenging activity removed the most important target objects on which the passive surveillance of ASF should be based. Conclusions: This study cannot determine whether canid scavengers positively or negatively influence the control efforts; however, the impact of the jackal should not be disregarded. The results warn the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach to complex epidemiological situations within different ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the concentrations of Al, Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, and Zn in the liver and kidney samples of golden jackals (n = 163) and red foxes (n = 64). Additionally, we studied how sex affected element concentration in both species, and in the case of golden jackals, how concentration levels were affected by age. Liver was the most important storage organ for Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn, while kidney for Cd and Na in jackals and foxes. We found no sex-related differences in concentration of any of the selected elements in fox samples. In jackals, the mean concentrations of Al, Mn, and Zn were significantly higher in kidneys of males, while Zn and Cu had higher concentrations in female livers. Our results suggest bioaccumulation processes do not occur in mesocarnivores. Lead and Cd concentrations fell within ranges accepted as normal for canine species and were below toxic levels in the organs of the examined species. Concentrations of Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn were far below the toxic levels in both organs of both species, with a slight sign of deficiency of Fe, Mn, and Zn in jackal and fox kidneys. In comparison with toxicity levels and results from other European study sites, the current study demonstrated that species living in the examined area of Somogy County, Hungary, are generally exposed to low levels of environmental contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The golden jackal (Canis aureus) is a widespread opportunistic mid-sized canid, distributed throughout southern Asia, the Middle East and South-eastern and Central Europe. European populations have undergone significant population changes in recent decades. During the first two decades of the 21st century the size of the jackal populations increased in their distribution and abundance across Europe. Hungary and Romania apply similar game management practices, and the golden jackal appeared approximately at the same time in both countries. With the aim to determine the genetic structure and the origin of the expanding jackal populations, we analysed samples obtained from Romania and Hungary. Genotyped at 22 canine autosomal microsatellite loci (STR), samples were analysed using multivariate, Bayesian and landscape genetic methods. In the Romanian samples all loci were polymorphic with 3-12 alleles. The overall observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosities were 0.552 and 0.647, respectively. In the Hungarian samples 20 out of 22 loci were polymorphic with 2-11 alleles. The overall observed (Ho) heterozygosity (0.561) was higher and the expected (He) heterozygosity (0.564) was lower than the corresponding Romanian value. Based on our clustering results, Romanian and Hungarian samples were separated into two different genetic clusters. These results show that smaller groups of golden jackals could become established in different regions following several episodes of colonization, possibly at different times and arriving from various locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]