Community-led wildlife health monitoring for a resilient and healthy Nunavik

由社区主导的野生动物健康监测，打造有复原力和健康的努纳维克

• 批准号: NE/X002497/1
• 负责人: James Wood
• 金额: $ 80.07万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FX002497%2F1
• 关键词: Community; led; wildlife; health; monitoring

Whether for food, art or furs, wildlife is intrinsic to Inuit culture. However, environmental change across Inuit Nunangat is threatening wildlife with potential impacts on food safety and security, as well as Inuit health and well-being, by promoting the spread of infectious diseases like Lyme disease and West Nile virus. In Nunavik, local communities have begun reporting more sick animals than ever before and attributed this observation to a changing environment. However, there is currently no systematic effort to monitor wildlife health across Nunavik. As Nunavik is one the most southern regions of Inuit Nunangat, it lies at the forefront of northwards spreading pathogens and can thus act as a sentinel to alert other Inuit regions of climate-related threats.In response to concerns from Inuit communities about the safety and security of traditional country foods, this project was initiated by the Nunavik Research Centre (NRC) - an Inuit-owned Research Centre - with the Nunavik Hunting, Fishing and Trapping Associations and Uumajuit Wardens. It unites these groups with leading experts in wildlife and public health, environmental microbiology, ethnography, and Indigenous methods from across Canada and the UK.The goal of this project is to equip communities to learn about climate-driven changes in wildlife disease, react rapidly to these changes, and find solutions to protect themselves against emerging risks. The outcomes of this project will allow Inuit communities to protect their health from animal-transmitted disease and preserve their consumption of culturally and nutritionally important traditional foods under a changing climate. By also developing new expertise and technology, this project will enable long-term adaptation to climate change impacts on wildlife in Nunavik, and promote self-determination of Inuit in health and natural resources policymaking and governance.To enable Inuit communities to detect and react to emerging pathogens, we will help them design and implement a community-led wildlife health surveillance system that meets local needs. We will gather information on how Inuit perceive wildlife health monitoring through knowledge engagement and exchange activities developed for Indigenous communities. This programme will reciprocally train non-Inuit researchers in Inuit ways of knowing to improve monitoring activities rooted in Western science. We will also build capacity to track emerging diseases by training Nunavimmiut and the NRC, developing a network of liaison officers across all Nunavik communities to coordinate disease surveillance, upgrading NRC laboratories, and enhancing the long-term self-sufficiency of the NRC in molecular diagnostics. We will also develop a simple protocol to foster community-led surveillance and research on climate-sensitive viruses transmitted by insects. These actions will collectively enable the Inuit-owned NRC to sustain long-term wildlife surveillance and initiate Inuit-led research in other areas.We will also develop and validate novel techniques to detect wildlife pathogens at a watershed-scale by sampling DNA and RNA shed into the natural environment. These techniques will overcome the challenge of directly monitoring pathogens in large wildlife, such as caribou, whose home ranges span hundreds of kilometers of inaccessible and remote terrain, and collect important baseline data to discover new pathogens of risk to wildlife and people.

无论是食物，艺术还是毛皮，野生动植物都是因纽特人文化的固有的。然而，纳南加特（Inuit Nunangat）的环境变化正在威胁野生动植物，通过促进莱姆病和西尼罗河病毒等传染病的传播，对食品安全和安全的健康和福祉产生潜在的影响以及因纽特人的健康和福祉。在努纳维克（Nunavik），当地社区已经开始报告比以往任何时候都多的病动物，并将这种观察结果归因于不断变化的环境。但是，目前尚未有系统的努力来监测整个Nunavik的野生动植物健康。 As Nunavik is one the most southern regions of Inuit Nunangat, it lies at the forefront of northwards spreading pathogens and can thus act as a sentinel to alert other Inuit regions of climate-related threats.In response to concerns from Inuit communities about the safety and security of traditional country foods, this project was initiated by the Nunavik Research Centre (NRC) - an Inuit-owned Research Centre - with the Nunavik Hunting,钓鱼和诱捕协会和Uumajuit Wardens。它将这些群体与来自加拿大和英国的野生动植物和公共卫生，环境微生物学，人种志和土著方法的领先专家团结在一起。该项目的目的是使社区能够使社区了解野生动植物疾病的气候变化，对这些变化迅速做出反应，并发现解决方案以保护自己免受新兴风险的影响。该项目的结果将使因纽特人社区能够保护其健康免受动物传播疾病的侵害，并在不断变化的气候下保留其在文化和营养上重要的传统食品的消费。通过开发新的专业知识和技术，该项目将能够长期适应努纳维克（Nunavik）对野生动植物的影响，并促进对健康和自然资源政策的自由学作用。为了使因纽特人社区检测和反应对新兴的病原体的反应，我们将帮助他们设计和实施社区充满的野生动物健康的系统，以满足野生动物的系统。我们将收集有关因纽特人如何通过为土著社区开发的知识参与和交流活动来感知野生动植物健康监测的信息。该计划将以认识以改善植根于西方科学的监测活动的因纽特方式进行相互培训的非锻炼研究人员。我们还将通过培训Nunavimmiut和NRC来建立追踪新兴疾病的能力，在所有Nunavik社区中开发一个联络官网络，以协调疾病监测，升级NRC实验室，并增强NRC在分子诊断中的长期自给自足。我们还将制定一个简单的方案，以促进社区主导的监视和研究昆虫传播的气候敏感病毒的研究。这些行动将共同使Inuit拥有的NRC能够维持长期的野生动植物监视，并在其他领域启动以因纽特人为主导的研究。我们还将开发和验证新型技术，以通过对DNA和RNA散发出自然环境来检测水域规模的野生动植物病原体。这些技术将克服直接监测大型野生动植物病原体的挑战，例如北美驯鹿（Caribou），其房屋范围跨越了数百公里的无法接近和偏远的地形，并收集重要的基线数据，以发现对野生动植物和人的风险新病原体。

项目成果

Global change ecology: Science to heal a damaged planet.

全球变化生态学：治愈受损星球的科学。

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002455
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: PLoS biology
• 影响因子: 9.8
• 作者: Tanentzap AJ