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

无论是食物、艺术品还是皮毛，野生动物都是因纽特人文化的固有元素。然而，整个因纽特努南加特地区的环境变化正在威胁着野生动物，对食品安全以及因纽特人的健康和福祉都有潜在的影响，因为它促进了莱姆病和西尼罗河病毒等传染病的传播。在努纳维克，当地社区已经开始报告比以往任何时候都更多的患病动物，并将这种观察到的情况归因于环境的变化。然而，目前还没有系统的努力来监测努纳维克州的野生动物健康。由于努纳维克是因纽特人努南加特最南部的地区之一，它处于病原体向北传播的前沿，因此可以作为哨兵，提醒其他因纽特人地区与气候有关的威胁。为了回应因纽特人社区对传统乡村食品安全和保障的担忧，该项目由努纳维克研究中心(NRC)发起，努纳维克研究中心(NRC)是因努伊特人拥有的研究中心，努纳维克狩猎、捕鱼和诱捕协会以及乌马朱伊特看守。它将这些小组与来自加拿大和英国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团结在一起。该项目的目标是使社区能够了解气候驱动的野生动物疾病的变化，对这些变化做出快速反应，并找到解决方案，以保护自己免受新出现的风险。该项目的成果将使因纽特人社区能够保护他们的健康不受动物传播疾病的影响，并在气候变化的情况下保护他们对具有文化和营养重要性的传统食品的消费。通过开发新的专业知识和技术，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管理方面的自决。为了使因纽特人社区能够检测和应对新出现的病原体，我们将帮助他们设计和实施社区主导的野生动物健康监测系统，以满足当地需求。我们将通过为土著社区开发的知识参与和交流活动，收集因纽特人如何看待野生动物健康监测的信息。该方案将对非因纽特人研究人员进行互惠培训，使他们了解因纽特人的知识方式，以改进植根于西方科学的监测活动。我们还将通过培训Nunavimmiut和NRC，在Nunavik所有社区发展联络官网络以协调疾病监测，升级NRC实验室，并加强NRC在分子诊断方面的长期自给自足，来建设跟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能够维持对野生动物的长期监测，并启动因纽特人领导的其他领域的研究。我们还将开发和验证新技术，通过对排放到自然环境中的DNA和RNA进行采样，在分水岭范围内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，其家园跨越数百公里难以到达的偏远地形，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.