European brown hare as a potential source of zoonotic agents

There has recently been a growing interest in checking the state of health of European brown hares in hunting grounds because they are a susceptible bio-indicator of environmental changes and because of the dramatic decline in populations across Europe. A total of 1 051 (384, 302, and 365, respectively) blood sera were collected from hares during autumn hunting events and examined for tularaemia, brucellosis and leptospirosis in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Antibodies were found in 6.5, 1.6 and 7.5% of cases, respectively. Antibodies against Francisella tularensis, Brucella suis and leptospires were found in 7.9, 1.7 and 7.7% of females and 4.5, 1.4 and 7.9% of males, respectively. Higher seroprevalence of tularaemia was found in females (P = 0.05). Brucellosis was more prevalent in adult animals compared to subadult ones (P = 0.05). Only the L. grippotyphosa serotype was found and the titres mostly ranged from 100 to 400 (89.9%). Higher titres from 800 to 3 200 were found in the remaining 10.1% of the examined European brown hare sera. Antibodies against F. tularensis as well as B. suis were most frequent in low titres of 10 to 80. Higher titres were only exceptional. Confirming that hares are susceptible to various zoonotic agents, it is necessary to be careful when handling the animals killed. On the other hand, blood sera from hares may be used to survey the occurrence of natural nidi of zoonoses in hunting grounds.