Transcript Kutz-Pathogens - Inventory and Beyond

CARMA – Rangifer Health
Inventory and Beyond
Susan Kutz, Ryan Brook, Pat Curry, Julie
duCrocq and Danna Schock
A big thanks to Dean Brown
Bottom Line
• “ensure barren-ground caribou continue to use
their ranges and remain an important aspect
of the lives of NWT residents.” Caribou Forever
GNWT
CARMA IPY
• Bring together a network of biological,
social, and physical scientists, First
Nations peoples, wildlife managers, and
others, to examine the health and
vulnerability of Rangifer species around
the Arctic
• Opportunity to compile historical and
existing traditional and scientific
knowledge and generate new
knowledge to inform management and
policy
Overview of CARMA Collections
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N=649 caribou sampled from 2004-2009 from 8 herds:
Ahiak (n=36)
Akia-Maniitsoq population Greenland (n=41)
Bathurst (n=150)
Beverly/Qaminirjuaq (n=56)
Bluenose East (n=65)
Bluenose West (n=51)
George (n=116)
Leaf (n=118)
Porcupine (n=15)
• Adults (79%), Calves (19%), Yearlings (2%)
• Males (37%), Females (63%)
• Body condition, pregnancy, body size and composition, pathogens
Inventory - Biodiversity
• Essential first step to understanding the role
of pathogens in
– Rangifer individual and herd health
– human health (zoonotic diseases)
– ecosystem health (spillover to sympatric species)
If you don’t know the wolves are there you can’t
understand how they are affecting the population
Preliminary findings – Biodiversity new
and varied across populations
• Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (Map, or
Johnes disease), in Akia-Maniitsoq caribou, Greenland
(Orsel and Cuyler)
– Free-ranging Rangifer susceptible
– Spill-over from domestics?
• Increased diversity of gastrointestinal nematodes in
Greenland and Labrador
– Spill-over from domestics?
– Different sympatric species and recent evolutionary history
– Significance in health of populations?
• Trypanosoma genotypes (Schock)
– Hidden diversity – multiple genotypes in
Canada, only one genotype in Greenland.
Inventory - Distribution of
Pathogens within Herds
• Knowing how parasites are distributed within a
population is essential for understanding
transmission dynamics and population level impact
Inventory - Distribution within Herds
Inventory - Distribution within Herds
Distribution Across Seasons
• Provides information on
• When pathogen may have an impact
• When to sample
• When transmission occurs
Inventory – Establish Normal (?) Status
and Variability among Individuals
Inventory – Establish Normal (?) Status
and Variability among Herds
Caribou, Southampton Island
Brucella suis and Pregnancy
• A compelling case for inventory and monitoring
Beyond Inventory - Comparison across
herds
• Compare parasites vs disease, herd trajectory,
climate, density, demographics, sympatric
species, etc.
Herd Comparisons
Herd Comparisons
• These analyses provide insight into what to
focus on, where are the key differences, what
sort of patterns are present.
• However,
– Correlational
– If we look at a herd at its low, expect very low
pathogen abundance – few interesting pathogen
events
What does this mean to the herds?
How can it inform management?
• Move beyond correlational to predictive.
• How do pathogens impact individuals?
How do pathogens impact individuals?
• Increased
consumption
Energy
• Reduced intake
• Physical
Behaviour• Personality/
cognitive
Repro.
• Direct effects
Approach
• IPY collections – can analyze pathogens relative
to body condition etc.
• Interpretation limited because
– Cross-sectional study
– Lag effects
– Seroprevalence =exposure, not disease
• Some correlations will be biologically valid
• Longitudinal and manipulative studies can
provide insight (Svalbard, Red Grouse)
• Experimental approach
The Health Continuum - Time 0
The Health Continuum –
Time 1 - Environmental Change
The Health Continuum – Severe
weather event
Climate
Environment
Habitat
Sympatric species
Pathogens
Caribou Health
and
Vulnerability
Drivers of Health
Pathogens
Contaminants
Habitat
Rangifer
Climate
Disturbance
What is the relative contribution of these drivers?
Are there drivers that we are missing?
Are we incorporating known drivers into our existing models?
Drivers of Health
Pathogens
Contaminants
Habitat
Rangifer
Climate
Disturbance
How do they interact?
How to move to a more integrative, predictive framework?
What is ‘Normal’?
• Under what biotic and abiotic conditions do
Rangifer survive?
• Under what conditions do they thrive?
• What is acceptable variability?
• CARMA as a network –
provides the medium to
mobilize our diverse
knowledge, expertise and
resources, cross disciplinary
boundaries, and develop
enhanced predictive
capacity