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

无论是食物、艺术还是皮毛，野生动物都是因纽特人文化中不可或缺的一部分。然而，因纽特人努南加特的环境变化正在威胁野生动物，通过促进莱姆病和西尼罗河病毒等传染病的传播，对食品安全和保障以及因纽特人的健康和福祉产生潜在影响。在努纳维克，当地社区报告的患病动物比以往任何时候都多，并将这一现象归因于不断变化的环境。然而，目前还没有系统地监测努纳维克野生动物的健康状况。由于努纳维克是因纽特人努南加特最南部的地区之一，它位于病原体向北传播的前沿，因此可以充当哨兵，提醒其他因纽特人地区注意与气候有关的威胁。为响应因纽特人社区对传统乡村食品安全和保障的关切，该项目由努纳维克研究中心（一个由因纽特人拥有的研究中心）与努纳维克狩猎、捕鱼和诱捕协会以及乌马纽特管理员共同发起。它将这些团体与来自加拿大和英国各地的野生动物和公共卫生、环境微生物学、人种学和土著方法方面的领先专家联合起来。该项目的目标是使社区了解气候驱动的野生动物疾病变化，对这些变化迅速作出反应，并找到保护自己免受新出现风险的解决方案。该项目的成果将使因纽特人社区能够在气候变化的情况下保护自己的健康，免受动物传播疾病的侵害，并保持对具有重要文化和营养意义的传统食品的消费。通过开发新的专门知识和技术，该项目将能够长期适应气候变化对努纳维克野生动物的影响，并促进因纽特人在卫生和自然资源决策和治理方面的自决。为了使因纽特人社区能够发现并应对新出现的病原体，我们将帮助他们设计和实施一个由社区主导的满足当地需求的野生动物健康监测系统。我们将收集有关因纽特人如何通过为土著社区开展的知识参与和交流活动看待野生动物健康监测的信息。该方案将以因纽特人的知识方式相互培训非因纽特人的研究人员，以改进植根于西方科学的监测活动。我们还将通过对努纳维米特和NRC进行培训、在所有努纳维克社区建立联络官网络以协调疾病监测、升级NRC实验室以及增强NRC在分子诊断方面的长期自给自足能力，来建设追踪新出现疾病的能力。我们还将制定一项简单的协议，以促进社区主导的对昆虫传播的气候敏感病毒的监测和研究。这些行动将共同使因纽特人拥有的NRC能够维持长期的野生动物监测，并在其他领域发起因纽特人主导的研究。我们还将开发和验证新技术，通过采样进入自然环境的DNA和RNA，在流域尺度上检测野生动物病原体。这些技术将克服直接监测大型野生动物病原体的挑战，例如驯鹿，它们的活动范围跨越数百公里难以到达和偏远的地形，并收集重要的基线数据，以发现对野生动物和人类构成风险的新病原体。

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.