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育构成严重威胁，有可能对其骨骼发育产生重大影响。这种骨质的下降已被证明会使动物处于骨折的高风险中，并降低繁殖成功率。加拿大环境和气候变化部管理着许多环境监测方案，这些方案用于确定污染对自然环境的影响。本项目的目的是调查水貂中污染物与骨骼健康之间的关系，以开发一种简单易行的生物标志物，用于跟踪环境对时间的影响。 水貂是生物监测的理想终点，因为它们是一种具有相对较小的家域的顶级捕食者，可以从诱捕器中收集。它们也广泛生活在北美，因此暴露于各种污染物中。在这项工作中，貂将来自阿萨巴斯卡油砂地区，魁北克的纸浆和造纸厂地区，以及新玩法的低工业区，沿着貂养殖场（作为对照）。将使用机械测试和医学成像技术评价每份样本的脊柱、股骨（腿骨）和阴茎骨（阴茎骨）的骨健康。污染程度将通过肝脏毒理学评估来表征，使我们能够确定可用作某些环境污染物生物标志物的具体措施。 这项工作支持了阿萨巴斯卡油砂地区的一项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。基于骨骼生物标志物的新监测计划将成为跟踪环境变化和相应野生动物健康的关键工具，对土著社区及其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自然环境造成的任何风险，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.