Conclusions
This study allowed us to identify that practices and conditions facilitating interactions between wild boar and domestic pigs and the transmission of shared swine pathogens were abundant and widespread in the Ardèche Department. Despite our sample limited, many of those factors were more important in the OD emergence area that outside. Those included ecological aspects (areas of forest and higher estimated wild density), but also anthropic factors related to pig farming such a significantly higher presence of farms with leaky biosecurity measures which were confirmed by the presence of a higher number of reported incursions and episodes of interaction. On the other hand, the results of the questionnaire suggest that risky agricultural practices such as slurry spreading and dumping of offal waste from hunting or pig slaughtering do occur and can facilitate indirect spill over of pathogens to the natural environment and subsequent transmission to wild boar populations. Moreover, our study highlights the potential importance of abandoned pot-bellied pig pets which can allow the development of free ranging feral pig populations and the development of a new and unsuspected wild-domestic suid interface, which deserves higher attention and further investigation about its potential epidemiological impact. Similar studies in this and other rural regions in the EU are recommended, in order to identify risk areas and anticipate preparedness for the emergence and circulation of shared swine pathogens.