This is a contribution to the agreement between csic, oapn and sdgsa on wildlife disease surveillance in Spain, and to the Castilla — La Mancha network on wildlife diseases (jccm). This is also a contribution to a grant from Grupo Santander — Fundación Marcelino Botín (Spain) and to projects inia fau06-016 and agl2005-07401, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Plan Nacional and feder. R. S. acknowledges a grant from jccm and mpmh, and a postdoctoral contract from isciii. The research group acknowledges support from Consejería de Sanidad jccm (gc05-06; san06-036).