Genetic resistance to Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter jejuni in wild boar (Sus scrofa L.)

We studied the genetic resistance to Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter jejuni in wild boar using both STR analysis and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). A total of 60 wild boars hunted in Tuscany (Italy) during the 2018/2019 hunting season were analyzed and genotyped. During postmortem operations, fecal swabs, liver samples and kidneys were collected. Two groups of animals were considered for the statistical analysis: 28 Campylobacter positive (22 for C. coli and 6 for C. jejuni) and 32 Campylobacter negative. Regarding STR analysis, 15 markers belonging to a marker panel validated by the International Society of Animal Genetics (ISAG) for swine were used: for each marker, alleles and genotype frequencies between the two groups of animals were compared using the Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact tests. To analyze the genetic variability within groups, the following parameters were computed: molecular coancestry coefficients (fij), kinship distance (Dk), inbreeding coefficient (Fi), and genetic similarities (GS). The internal relatedness (IR) was also calculated, and ANOVA was used to verify the relationships between IR and Campylobacter groups. For GWAS, the Geneseek Genomic Profiler Porcine HD (70 k), containing 62,330 SNPs, was used. No differences in the internal relatedness (IR) were observed between the two groups (F = 5.64, P = 0.065) and no significant association between STRs and SNPs and Campylobacter positivity was observed. Although genetic resistance to bacterial diseases is often regulated by multiple genes controlling different processes of the host–pathogen interaction, in our studies no candidate genes that could be directly or indirectly involved in the development of the disease were identified.