Biotelemetry System: Infrastructure for assessing disease transmission in wildlife

人口增长和相关的全球栖息地破碎化增加了传染病从野生动物向家畜和人类的传播。新兴的“同一个世界，同一个健康”范式强调，人类、动物和环境的健康必须作为一个不可分割的整体来对待——然而，野生动物的健康及其与人类的联系仍然是我们对这个系统的理解中最薄弱的部分。迫切需要对控制野生动物之间疾病传播的因素进行研究。十多年来，基于卫星的遥测项圈被用于在广泛的空间和时间尺度上跟踪大型哺乳动物的运动，为政府机构提供重要的新信息。传染病在野生动物中传播的应用对追踪动物个体如何在精细尺度上相互作用的设备提出了新的要求，因为疾病传播是从动物到动物以及从环境中的来源。遥测和遥视的新技术现在首次使解决这些有关野生动物疾病传播的关键问题成为可能。我们要求为这些尖端技术的基础设施提供资金，使我们能够追踪单个动物之间实际的亲密接触（< 1米）。该基础设施将用于阿尔伯塔省东部的长尾鹿，阿尔伯塔省是加拿大仅有的两个省之一，慢性消耗性疾病（CWD）是一种100%致命的朊病毒疾病，与牛的牛海绵状脑病（BSE）有关，目前正在蔓延。针对慢性腹泻病的疫苗在不久的将来不太可能可行，即使疫苗可用，收获管理也被认为是疾病控制方法的最佳长期战略。作为阿尔伯塔鱼类和野生动物进行的长期收获管理实验的一部分，需要从这些项圈中获得的信息来模拟直接接触率，以评估两种替代的收获策略，这些策略侧重于鹿的社会群体，可能是CWD传播的关键驱动因素。这项研究将导致控制CWD传播的基于科学的管理，作为加拿大国家战略的一部分。

The growing human population and associated global habitat fragmentation has increased the transmission of infectious disease from wildlife to domestic animals and humans. An emerging "One World, One Health" paradigm emphasizes that the health of humans, animals, and the environment must be treated as one inseparable whole--yet wildlife health and its link to humans remains the weakest part of our understanding of the system. There is a strong need for research on the factors governing the transmission of diseases among wildlife. Over a decade satellite-based telemetry collars have been used to track movement of large mammals over broad spatial and temporal scales, providing critical, new information to guide governmental agencies. Application to infectious disease spread in wildlife places new demands on equipment for tracking how individual animals interact at fine scales because disease transmission is from animal-to-animal and from sources in the environment. New technologies for telemetry and remote viewing are now making it possible to address these key questions about wildlife disease transmission for the first time. We are requesting funding for infrastructure at the cutting edge of these technologies that allow us to track the actual, intimate contacts (< 1 m) between individual animals. The infrastructure will be used on mule deer in eastern Alberta, one of the only two provinces in Canada where Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a 100% fatal prion disease related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, is now marching across the landscape. Vaccines for CWD are not likely feasible in the near future and harvest management is considered the best, long-term strategy for disease control method even if vaccines become available. The information from these collars is needed to model direct contact rates as part of a long-term harvest management experiment conducted by Alberta Fish and Wildlife for assessing two alternative harvest strategies focused on deer social groups that may be the key drivers in the CWD transmission. The research will lead to science-based management for controlling CWD transmission as part of Canada's National Strategy.