Carnivoran Spleen Samples Across Italy

For this study, 235 wild carnivorans (157 foxes, 45 badgers and 33 wolves) were collected in the period between 2009 and 2017 (Figure 1). All the animals were road-killed, with the exception of red foxes that were culled during the official hunting seasons as part of the culling program for fox population control, and carcasses were brought to the Department of Veterinary Science, University of Turin, for necropsy.
For each animal, information such as age (estimated by dental conditions and body size measurements), sex and area of origin (mountain/flat/hill region) were recorded (Table 1). Spleen was collected from each animal and individually stored at −20°C until further analysis.
Figure 2 shows the spatial distribution of the sampled animals.