Microbial Community Ecology of a Highly Successful Invasive Alien Species: Feral Swine (Sus scrofa) in the Southeastern United States

Satterlee, S. Andrew

The goal of this study is to investigate differences within the microbial communities associated with feral swine across both a disturbance and latitudinal gradient within the southeastern United States. In order to properly address this issue, our lab within the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida (UF) is currently gathering fecal and blood samples from sites which represent both anthorpogenically disturbed and undisturbed habitats throughout the southeastern United States with the support of USDA APHIS Wildlife Services, the National Park Service, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and the Jones Center. They are using a combination of in-house and commercially available laboratory techniques to describe the enteric and blood-borne microbial community structure associated with feral swine. Samples were collected in eastern NC, SC, south AL, the FL panhandle, and two locations in peninsular FL, as well as from the Smokies. PIs did not find support for the hypothesis that differences among the microbial communities associated with feral swine are driven by large biogeographical patterns such as isolation by distance and ecosystem productivity. We did find support for the hypothesis that enteric and blood-borne microbial communities associated with feral swine are driven by land use practices. Many of the microbial taxa detected within feral swine collected during this study represented a core community with little deviation across sites. However, there were several microbial taxa detected which were landscape specific. Examples include agriculturally-important plant pathogens within agricultural sites and species-specific fish pathogens from sites where host species are known to occur. Most interestingly, their data shows that feral swine collected from an active commercial cattle operation have the highest number of fecal-oral transmitted pathogenic viruses than feral swine collected from other landscape types within this study.