From 1992/93 to 1995/96 in Northrhine-Westfalia and in two counties in the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate 768 blood serum samples were collected from wild boar and examined for the presence of antibodies to the following viral illnesses: PRRS (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome), PPV (Porcine Parvoviruses), ESP (Hog cholera), and AK (Aujeszky's Disease) (Tab. 1). In no case was there evidence for the presence of antibodies against PRRS and ESP. Antibodies against AK were found in 7% of the serum samples and against PPV in 77% (Tab. 7). The samples stratified according to age groups, young pigs to 15 months, juvenile boar to 2 years and those over two years correspond to the average age groups in the hunting records (Tab. 3, 4). The positive findings for the AK virus were spatially concentrated at the perimeter of the wild boar distribution around the Kolner Bucht and were adjacent to two outbreaks of the AK virus among domestic pigs. The average positive reactions among the age groups were as follows: 3% young pigs, 9% juveniles, 18% older wild boar (Tab. 6). Of 121 samples analyzed for PPV 61% of the young boar, 69% of the juveniles, and 98% of the older boar reacted positively (Tab. 5). The high percentage of positive reactions to the long-lived antibodies against PPV shows that this the wild boar populations.
