Biomarkers of pathogen exposure in wild boar for integrated wildlife monitoring

Wildlife health surveillance is relevant for the control of shared infections at the wildlife-domestic animal-human interface. The Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa) has been identified as a reliable sentinel species for a wide variety of pathogens. In addition to pathogen-specific antibody detection, indirect biomarkers have been proposed as an additional tool for health assessment. This study aims to identify serum biomarkers with good predictive capacity for individual pathogen exposure richness, i.e., the number of pathogens against which antibodies are detected in a single host. We assessed the presence of antibodies against 14 pathogens in 225 wild boar from the Iberian Peninsula, as well as the serum levels of two acute phase proteins (APPs; haptoglobin and C-reactive protein), a redox balance marker (CUPRAC), and an immune response indicator (ADA). We also assessed the antibody production against the glycan galactose-α-1,3-galactose (alpha-gal; α-GAL). Our results demonstrated that α-GAL is a valuable biomarker of pathogen exposure since it was the only one consistently correlated with individual pathogen exposure richness, as well as the one with the highest discriminatory power. Overall, this research supports that screening of wild boar sera for anti-α-GAL antibodies could serve as a broad-spectrum indicator for pathogen exposure, supporting its potential inclusion in integrated monitoring schemes, complementing traditional pathogen screening approaches. Keywords: alpha-gal; serum biomarkers; wild ungulates; episystem; One Health.野生动物健康监测对于管控野生动物-家养动物-人类传播界面的共患传染病具有重要意义。欧亚野猪（Sus scrofa）已被证实为多种病原体的可靠哨兵物种。除病原体特异性抗体检测外，间接生物标志物也被提议作为健康评估的补充手段。本研究旨在筛选出对个体病原体暴露丰富度（即单宿主体内检测到对应抗体的病原体种类数）具备良好预测能力的血清生物标志物。我们对采自伊比利亚半岛的225头野猪体内14种病原体的抗体存在情况进行了检测，同时测定了两种急性期蛋白（APPs；触珠蛋白与C反应蛋白）、氧化还原平衡标志物（CUPRAC）以及免疫应答指标腺苷脱氨酶（ADA）的血清水平。此外，我们还检测了针对聚糖半乳糖-α-1,3-半乳糖（alpha-gal；α-GAL）的抗体生成水平。研究结果显示，α-GAL是极具应用价值的病原体暴露生物标志物：它是唯一与个体病原体暴露丰富度持续呈显著相关的指标，同时也是区分能力最强的标志物。综上，本研究证实，通过检测野猪血清中的抗α-GAL抗体，可作为病原体暴露的广谱指示指标，有望将其纳入综合监测体系，作为传统病原体筛查方法的有效补充。 关键词：alpha-gal；血清生物标志物；野生有蹄类动物；episystem；同一健康（One Health）。