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Agricultural intensification has played an important role in the decline of biodiversity in farmland ecosystems. Habitat degradation has resulted in reduced edge effects. This has led to species loss, soil degradation, deflation and drying of arable land. Much of Europe is farmland, which has a significant impact on the continent's climate. Although the previous conditions cannot be fully restored, beetle banks, grasslands and hedgerows can be well integrated into the agricultural policy of the European Union. How do linear habitats affect the microclimate, biosphere and crops? An endemic farmland bird, the grey partridge (Perdix perdix) is an indicator of healthy farmland ecosystems. Their population has declined drastically in recent decades across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African swine fever (ASF) is a fatal animal disease without zoonotic potential but greatly impacts human well‐being, especially in the most vulnerable human communities. In Europe, ASF concerns mostly the wildlife domain of health. The main vector of the disease is confirmed to be the wild boar, though long‐distance jumps of the infection are due to anthropogenic effects. This study aimed to evaluate the potential role of hunting assistant personnel (beaters and carcass handlers) in ASF spread in Hungary. Based on a personal interview survey, we attempted to identify the epidemiological risk caused by hunting activities and the hunting personnel. The interviews with 58 hunting workers confirmed that an extent backyard pig sector (13 pig farmers) and pork production system (31 pork producers) existed within the study region out of the authorities' sight. Two pig farmers did not wear special working clothes for pig caring, seven pork producers disposed of slaughter offal in the settlements periphery, and six persons regularly contacted distant pig farms. The revealed knowledge, attitude, and practice of the questioned pig farmers suggested that this sector would be very vulnerable in an epidemic situation; moreover, backyard farms would cause a great risk for wildboar populations. Considering that the study region is the third poorest region of Hungary, these findings called attention to the high epidemiologic risk of socioeconomic inequality between different regions within the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recognition that egg volume variation has widespread implications in avian biology led us to test the accuracy and precision of the most commonly used egg volume determination methods. As a benchmark for the tests, we used real egg volume values determined by water submersion. We identified some evident limitations of this approach and attempted to improve the method by using distilled water and accurate temperature correction. Starting from the assumption that our methodological proposals can effectively improve the accuracy of egg volume measurements, we compared the outcomes with two widely used volume estimation methods based on Hoyt's equation and Troscianko software estimate for five gallinaceous bird species (forty eggs from each species). We found that Hoyt's and Troscianko's egg volume estimation methods strongly correlate with our volume measurements. Despite the highly significant and relatively high values of coefficients of determination, further analyses reveal some important differences among the methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]

The study was performed on 20 (10 males, 10 females) roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus) to investigate the concentration of cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic in the muscle tissue. They reside in forest and meadow, about 50 km distance from industrial activities and traffic. Samples were taken from the musculus biceps femoris of each deer without external contamination after shooting during the regular hunting season on a hunting area close to Eger in Hungary. The determination of heavy metal contents was carried out by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The statistical analysis was performed by statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 11.0. The measured residue concentration of cadmium was below the limit of detection in the roe deer meat indicating no health risk for the consumers. The average lead concentration (0.48 ± 0.21 mg/kg wet weight) exceeded the regulated maximum limit, but its calculated weekly intake was below the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI). The residue level of mercury is not regulated and the average mercury content of roe deer meat (0.87 ± 0.40 mg/kg wet weight) was about half of PTWI, but the consumption of meat with the highest detected concentrations results in higher PTWI than recommended. The measured concentration of arsenic (0.27 ± 0.20 mg/kg wet weight) in the roe deer meat may not pose any health risk for the human consumers according to the PTWI set by the World Health Organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]