Influence of environmental contaminants on bone health measures in wild mink for biomonitoring programs

环境污染物对加拿大野生动物物种的健康和发展构成严重威胁，并可能对其骨骼发育产生重大影响。这种骨骼质量的下降已被证明使动物处于骨折的高风险中，并降低了繁殖成功率。加拿大环境和气候变化管理着许多环境监测项目，这些项目被用来描述污染对自然环境的影响。本项目的目的是调查污染物与水貂骨骼健康之间的关系，目的是开发一种简单易用的生物标记物，用于跟踪环境随时间的影响。 水貂是生物监测的理想终点，因为它们是一种顶端捕食者，其栖息地相对较小，可以从捕猎者那里收集。它们也广泛地生活在北美各地，因此暴露在各种污染物中。在这项工作中，水貂将来自阿萨巴斯卡油砂地区，魁北克的一个纸浆和造纸厂地区，以及新不伦瑞克的一个低工业区，以及一个水貂养殖场(作为对照)。从每个标本中，将使用机械测试和医学成像技术评估脊柱、股骨(腿骨)和杆骨(阴茎骨)的骨骼健康状况。污染程度将通过对肝脏的毒理学评估来表征，使我们能够确定可用作某些环境污染物的生物标记物的具体措施。 这项工作支持阿萨巴斯卡油砂地区高度优先的政府环境监测计划，并将其应用于加拿大其他环境污染地区。基于骨骼生物标记物的新监测项目将成为跟踪环境变化和相应野生动物健康的关键工具，对土著社区和他们的土地也具有重要意义。这项研究还将为制定缓解战略提供信息，以帮助减轻工业活动对我们的自然环境构成的任何风险，帮助保护加拿大各地野生动物的健康。

Environmental pollutants pose a serious threat to the health and development of wildlife species in Canada, with the potential to have significant effects on their skeletal development. This decrease in bone quality has been shown to put animals at a high risk of fractures, as well as reduced reproductive success. Environment and Climate Change Canada manages numerous environmental monitoring programs, which are used to characterize the effects of pollution on the natural environment. The purpose of the current project is to investigate the relationship between contaminants and bone health in mink, for the purposes of developing an easy and accessible biomarker for tracking environmental effects over time. Mink are an ideal endpoint for biomonitoring, as they are an apex predator with a relatively small home range, that can be collected from trappers. They also live widely across North America, and as such are exposed to a wide range of contaminants. In this work, mink will be sourced from the Athabasca Oil Sands region, a pulp and paper mill area in Quebec, and a low-industry area in New Brunswick, along with a mink farm (to serve as a control). From each specimen, the bone health will be evaluated in the spine, femur (leg bone) and baculum (penile bone) using mechanical testing and medical imaging techniques. The degree of contamination will be characterized through toxicology evaluations on the liver, allowing us to identify specific measures that can be used as biomarkers for certain environmental contaminants. This work supports a high priority governmental environmental monitoring program in the Athabasca Oil Sands region, with applications to other regions of Canada with environmental contamination. The new monitoring programs based on bone biomarkers will be critical tools for tracking changes in the environment and corresponding wildlife health, and also have great importance for Indigenous communities and their land. This study will also inform the development of mitigation strategies to help alleviate any risk posed by industrial activities on our natural environment, to help protect the health of wildlife across Canada.