Matteo Mazzucato

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie | IZSVe · SCS4 - Veterinary Epidemiology

Ixodes ricinus ticks are ubiquitous in Europe, including in North-East Italy. These ticks are important vectors of several zoonotic pathogens of public health relevance. In this study, the habitat suitability range of I. ricinus ticks infected with zoonotic pathogens was predicted in North-East Italy, and relevant spatial predictors were identified...

Since the 1980s, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have been integrated into animal farming technologies for purposes such as enhancing production performances and veterinary epidemiology. In aquaculture, however, there seems to be limited application of GIS, and its potential is widely overlooked, especially for aquatic animal health manageme...

African Swine Fever (ASF), a severe swine disease with potential zoonotic implications, historically limited to Sardinia in Italy since 1978, made its mainland debut in January 2022, raising concerns. The genotype found in northwest Italy (genotype II) differs from the Sardinian strain (genotype I). By January 2024, the epidemic had escalated, with...

Avian influenza (AI) is a critical poultry disease with a worrying epidemic and zoonotic potential. Since 1997, the densely populated poultry area of Northeastern Italy has been affected by large and recurrent epidemics of AI, resulting in severe direct and indirect economic losses. The Epidemiology department of the “Istituto Zooprofilattico Speri...

Simple Summary This systematic review focuses on the occurrence of fish-borne zoonotic helminths, including Clinostomum complanatum, Contracaecum rudolphii, Dibothriocephalus latus, Eustrongylides excisus, Opisthorchis felineus, and Pseudamphistomum truncatum, in freshwater fish populations of Italy and neighbouring countries. The study outlines th...

Italy is one of the main European producers of trout fish, and the most important producing area is the Autonomous Province of Trento (APT) in the North East. The objective of the study was to obtain a snapshot of the trout farms of the APT by identifying biosecurity factors, objectifying them, and classifying the establishments accordingly. Data f...

Simple Summary In the growing aquaculture sector, more concerns have arisen regarding health management in farmed fish. Geographic information systems (GISs) dedicated to storing, collecting, retrieving, transforming, and displaying large sets of spatial data may help enhance disease control and surveillance, especially during outbreaks. To shed li...

Geographic information requires special modelling and analysis methods [1]. GIS technicians base the selection of data modelling and application methods on many factors including the available software, reason for the application, and, especially, user's level of training and examples from the literature [2]. Despite the increased interest in GIS a...

The recent reinforcement of CoV surveillance in animals fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic provided increasing evidence that mammals other than bats might hide further diversity and play critical roles in human infectious diseases. This work describes the results of a two-year survey carried out in Italy with the double objective of uncovering CoV di...

Environmental and climatic fluctuations can greatly influence the dynamics of infectious diseases of veterinary concern, or interfere with the implementation of relevant control measures. Including environmental and climatic aspects in epidemiological studies could provide policy makers with new insights to assign resources for measures to prevent...

Between October 2021 and April 2022, 317 outbreaks caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 viruses were notified in poultry farms in the northeastern Italian regions. The complete genomes of 214 strains were used to estimate the genetic network based on the similarity of the viruses. An exponential random graph model (ERGM) was used...

Between October 2021 and April 2022, 317 outbreaks caused by highly pathogenic avian influen-za (HPAI) H5N1 viruses were notified in poultry farms in the northeastern Italian Regions. The complete genomes of 214 strains were used to estimate the genetic network based on the virus similarity. An exponential random graph model (ERGM) was used to asse...

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is the causative agent of caseous lymphadenitis, a bacterial infection that can affect livestock. This infection can cause low growth rates and milk yields and reproductive failure, along with the infection of humans, especially those in close contact with the animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the loc...

Background. A new strain of WNV lineage 1 (WNV − 1) emerged in the Veneto Region, northern Italy, in 2021, eight years after the last outbreak of WNV − 1 in Italy. The virus, which co-circulates with WNV-2, has become endemic in the Region, where, in 2022, most human cases of neuroinvasive disease (WNND) reported in Europe have occurred. Methods. C...

Despite the eradication of malaria across most European countries in the 1960s and 1970s, the anopheline vectors are still present. Most of the malaria cases that have been reported in Europe up to the present time have been infections acquired in endemic areas by travelers. However, the possibility of acquiring malaria by locally infected mosquito...

Honey bee mating is difficult to control as it occurs in flight, several kilometers away from the hive of origin of both queens and drones. In recent years, there has been an increase in the introduction into Italy of queen bees and swarms originating from interracial crossings (especially those known as “Buckfast”), or belonging to non-native subs...

Comprehensive understanding of the patterns and drivers of avian influenza outbreaks is pivotal to inform surveillance systems and heighten nations’ ability to quickly detect and respond to the emergence of novel viruses. Starting in early 2017, the Italian poultry sector has been involved in the massive H5N8 highly pathogenic avian influenza epide...

Leptospirosis in dogs has been largely described worldwide, and epidemiological studies have been mainly based on serological data. This study aims to detect and genotype leptospires affecting symptomatic dogs in Northeast Italy between 2013 and 2019. Overall, 1631 dogs were tested using real-time PCR, and leptospires from 193 dogs were subjected t...

Background: Vector-borne infectious diseases (VBDs) represent a major public health concern worldwide. Among VBDs, West Nile virus (WNV) showed an increasingly wider spread in temperate regions of Europe, including Italy. During the last decade, WNV outbreaks have been recurrently reported in mosquitoes, horses, wild birds, and humans, showing gre...

Background The invasive mosquito species, Aedes japonicus japonicus, was detected in northeastern Italy for the first time in 2015, at the border with Austria. After this finding, a more intensive monitoring was carried out to assess its distribution and to collect biological data. Herein, we report the results of four years (2015–2018) of activity...

The study summarises the results obtained over the period 2002–2013 by the Italian IT-Enter-Vet network, aimed at collecting data on Salmonella isolates from non-human sources. A total of 42,491 Salmonella isolates were reported with a progressive decrease over the years. S. Typhimurium was the most frequent serovar up to 2011, but then, it was ove...

Pre-slaughter transportation of rabbits under commercial conditions may influence their mortality, routinely recorded at the slaughterhouse as DOA (‘dead-on-arrival’ rate). The aim of this study was to identify potential risk factors for DOA, including batch size (number of rabbits loaded), season, stocking density, and transport and lairage durati...

Pre-slaughter transportation may affect poultry welfare and mortality rates. A retrospective analysis was conducted to examine the effect of environmental, management and individual factors on the percentage of dead birds during pre-slaughter transportation (dead-on-arrival, DOA). The variables accounted for in the analyses included: environmental...

This paper presents the outcome of a project aimed at developing a system for the management of the information flow regarding the approval and supervision of pre and post-arrival animal quarantine station. In particular, the paper outlines the project strategies and issues identified during the implementation process of a GIS based application in...

Schmallenberg virus (SBV) has spread across Europe since mid-2011, causing unspecific and transitory symptoms in ruminants and congenital malformations in their offspring. Evidence for the impact of SBV on cattle (re)productive performance is limited. Using a comprehensive data set from a SBV-affected province in North-East Italy, this study aimed...

Background: The invasive species Aedes (Finlaya) koreicus was first identified in north-eastern Italy in 2011, during the ongoing surveillance activity of Aedes albopictus. Following this finding, a more intensive monitoring was carried out to assess the distribution of the species and to collect biological data. Herein, we report the new records...

Objective: West Nile Virus (WNV) has widely spread in Italy since its reappearance in 2008, and the yearly recurrence of WNV in the north-eastern regions suggests the possibility that the virus may have become endemic in that area. The wide extant of WNV spread throughout Italy has been related to environmental and demographic changes that ultimate...

Objective: In the management of data about surveillance, disease epidemics, vaccination campaigns, among other, there is a need to compose data across different resources in order to create the necessary basis for decisions. The prerequisites for this is to have the opportunity to discover whether a resource exists, who has it, where it is located,...

Northeastern Italy is particularly suitable for mosquito survival, due to its climate, landscape and abundance of wild/domestic animals. After the emergence of West Nile Virus (WNV) in 2008, entomological studies were implemented. Here we describe how entomological data were managed to optimize surveillance and control of mosquito borne pathogens....

SUMMARY The steep increase in human West Nile virus (WNV) infections in 2011-2012 in north-eastern Italy prompted a refinement of the surveillance plan. Data from the 2010-2012 surveillance activities on mosquitoes, equines, and humans were analysed through Bernoulli space-time scan statistics, to detect the presence of recurrent WNV infection hots...

Background The container breeding species belonging to the genus Aedes (Meigen) are frequently recorded out of their place of origin. Invasive Aedes species are proven or potential vectors of important Arboviruses and their establishment in new areas pose a threat for human and animal health. A new species of exotic mosquito was recorded in 2011 in...

This paper illustrates and discusses the key issues of the geographical information system (GIS) developed by the Unit of Veterinary Epidemiology of the Veneto region (CREV), defined according to user needs, spatial data (availability, accessibility and applicability), development, technical aspects, inter-institutional relationships, constraints a...