ESSENTIAL AND NON-ESSENTIAL ELEMENT BIOAVAILABILITY FROM SUBSISTENCE FOODS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory has acquired and installed major equipment and trained two technicians (Ms. Knott and Ms. Swor) and two students (Ms. Kirk and Ms. Moses) on the use of the Perkin Elmer AA800 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, Brooks Rand Mercury Analyzer (total and monomethyl) and other equipment associated with the health assessment (impacts). A QA/QC program was established with the Trace Elements Laboratory at Texas A&M University (College Station) under the guidance of Dr. Gerald Bratton, and numerous samples of future food items (ungulates, seals, etc.) for the arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) feeding trial were analyzed for essential and non-essential elements. Ms. Sara Moses is leading this QA/QC effort that was initiated January 2005. The marine mammal tissue analyses will be a part of a QA/QC program with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Basic health and immune status assays are being established by all in the laboratory under the guidance of the Laboratory Manager (Ms. Swor) and the PI. Capture of arctic foxes for this study will occur June 2005 and the feeding trial initiated this summer. We will determine the general bioavailability of essential (Cu, Se, Zn) and non-essential (Cd, Hg) elements and stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen enrichment to the arctic fox from these select subsistence food items. In the longer term we will determine the suitability of the arctic fox model for laboratory studies to address immune, reproductive and disease transmission issues related to contaminants and infectious agents in the arctic Alaska human and wildlife food web. The laboratory continues to recruit for a Postdoctoral assistant. One prospect remains in a Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin Madison and could be available next year (2006).