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Five Percent of Tracked Wild Boar Accounted for Half of Potential Pig-farm Contacts

Wild boar in Germany with head and upper body clearly visible
Research · Ecology

A Europe-wide GPS study found that visits by wild boar (Sus scrofa) to domestic pig farms were concentrated in a small fraction of animals and farms. Researchers analysed tracking data from 187 wild boars and the locations of 457 pig farms across 32 study sites in eight European countries, identifying 3,322 potential contact events.

The study defined a contact as a simulated five-minute wild-boar location within 50 metres of a pig farm boundary, with consecutive locations grouped into one event and events less than an hour apart merged. These records therefore represent potential visits or contacts at the farm interface, not confirmed direct physical interactions with domestic pigs.

Contacts were concentrated in a small fraction of animals

Only 85 of the 187 tracked wild boars had at least one recorded farm contact. The distribution was highly uneven: 5% of the tracked boars and 1% of the farms accounted for half of all contact events. On average, each wild boar had 1.59 contacts per month with a given farm and 2.58 contacts per month when all farms within its monthly home range were considered.

Landscape and proximity shaped contact rates

Contact rates increased with forest cover around farms, human footprint, local wild-boar density and proximity of an individual to a farm. Larger farms had higher contact rates, while farms with more built infrastructure had fewer. Contacts occurred mainly after sunset and around sunrise. Seasonal patterns also differed between the sexes: males showed peaks in March and again in August–September, while contact rates in females rose slightly through winter.

The authors conclude that the risk of contact at the wild–domestic pig interface is strongly concentrated in particular animals, farms, places and times. They argue that this uneven pattern can help focus measures intended to reduce disease transmission risk, especially around large farms in wooded landscapes and during periods when visits are most frequent.

Sources and image credit

  1. Morelle, K., Wielgus, E., Brogi, R., Bhardwaj, M., Chamaillé-Jammes, S., Baubet, E., Saïd, S., Licoppe, A., De Waele, V., Casaer, J., Scheppers, T., Jezek, M., Kjellander, P., Brivio, F., Nahlik, A., Tari, T., Klamm, A., Apollonio, M., Arnold, J., … Porphyre, T. (2026). Spatio-temporal patterns and risk factors of wild boar–pig farm contact across Europe. Journal of Applied Ecology, 63(2), e70314. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70314Primary open-access research article first published online 21 February 2026. GPS data from 187 wild boars and 457 pig farms across 32 sites in eight European countries were used to estimate potential farm contacts. The study identified 3,322 contact events; 5% of tracked boars and 1% of farms accounted for half of all events. Contacts were concentrated after sunset and around sunrise and increased with forest cover, human footprint, wild-boar density and proximity to farms.

Image: Bramans / Wikimedia Commons — wild boar (Sus scrofa) in Oberursel, Hesse, Germany, 8 March 2015; illustrative photograph from one of the countries included in the European GPS study, not a tracked study animal. · CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Source

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