Biotelemetry System: Infrastructure for assessing disease transmission in wildlife

不断增长的人口和相关的全球栖息地碎片化增加了传染病从野生动物向家养动物和人类的传播。一种新兴的“同一个世界，同一个健康”的范式强调，必须将人类、动物和环境的健康视为一个不可分割的整体--然而，野生动物健康及其与人类的联系仍然是我们对该系统理解的最薄弱部分。迫切需要研究控制疾病在野生动物间传播的因素。十多年来，基于卫星的遥测项圈被用来跟踪大型哺乳动物在广泛的空间和时间尺度上的运动，为指导政府机构提供关键的新信息。传染病在野生动物中传播的应用对设备提出了新的要求，以跟踪单个动物如何在细微范围内相互作用，因为疾病传播是从动物到动物和从环境中的源头。遥测和遥视的新技术现在使首次解决这些关于野生动物疾病传播的关键问题成为可能。我们正在申请为这些技术前沿的基础设施提供资金，这些技术使我们能够跟踪单个动物之间的实际亲密接触(100万英镑)。该基础设施将用于艾伯塔省东部的骡鹿，这是加拿大仅有的两个慢性消耗性疾病(CWD)正在蔓延的省份之一。CWD是一种与牛海绵状脑病(BSE)有关的100%致命的Pron疾病。CWD疫苗在不久的将来不太可能可行，即使有疫苗可用，收获管理也被认为是最好的、长期的疾病控制方法。作为艾伯塔省鱼类和野生动物进行的长期收获管理实验的一部分，需要来自这些项圈的信息来模拟直接接触率，以评估两种替代的收获策略，重点是鹿的社会群体，这可能是CWD传播的关键驱动因素。作为加拿大国家战略的一部分，这项研究将导致以科学为基础的管理，以控制CWD的传播。

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.