Engaging northern communities in the monitoring of country food safety and wildlife health

This project has proven the benefits of having northern laboratories and by training several northerners for wildlife sampling and laboratory techniques. In collaboration with the scientists working at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Gdansk University, we achieved the following: 1) Development of two diagnostic tests, adapted for northern conditions, for the presumptive presence of E.coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella sp., 2) results were negative for all samples (n=129) and 2 community freezers, 3) all family members of the Anisakidae nematodes were present in traditionally eaten fish or in marine mammals from Nain, Labrador, Ungava and Hudson Bays up to Arviat, Nunavut, 4) presence of adult worms in marine mammals proves their transmission in the marine food web, 5) only freeze resistant T. nativa and Trichinella T6 were identified, 6) Trichinella infection was widespread among terrestrial carnivores, but amongst marine mammals, walrus and polar bears were the only ones infected, 7) black bears and walruses are the most common source of human infection in the north, 8) two diagnostic tests were developed for Toxoplasma gondii (multiplex PCR and multi-species enzyme immunoassay (ELISA)) that can be used to detect Toxoplasma DNA in meat, and antibodies in blood or tissue fluid, respectively, 9) an absorbent filter paper method to collect blood under Arctic conditions for the diagnosis of Toxoplasma gondii was assessed in collaboration with the caribou Network (CARMA) with good results. 10) a qualitative research study undertaken in Nain, Nunatsiavut demonstrated that residents would like research results co-presented to them by the Nunatsiavut Government and the researcher, in a hands-on fashion that emphasized visual methods and one-on-one interaction, 11) a data-entry website and interface was developed featuring the ability to add, modify, search, export and delete IPY specimen data. The data entered using this system is securely stored in the latest version of the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre database at the University of Saskatchewan.

本项目证实了在北部地区布设实验室的价值，并培训了多名北部地区人员掌握野生动物采样与实验室操作技术。本团队与加拿大食品检验局（Canadian Food Inspection Agency）、格但斯克大学（Gdansk University）的科研人员合作，完成了以下工作：1）开发了两种适配北部环境的诊断检测方法，用于推定检测大肠杆菌O157:H7（E.coli 0157:H7）与沙门氏菌属（Salmonella sp.）的疑似感染；2）所有129份样本及2台社区冷冻柜的检测结果均为阴性；3）异尖线虫科（Anisakidae nematodes）的所有类群均存在于纳因、拉布拉多、昂加瓦、哈德逊湾至努纳武特阿维亚特地区的传统食用鱼类或海洋哺乳动物体内；4）海洋哺乳动物体内成虫的检出，证实了该寄生虫在海洋食物网中的传播路径；5）仅鉴定出耐冻的旋毛虫T. nativa与旋毛虫T6型；6）旋毛虫感染在陆生食肉动物中广泛流行，但在海洋哺乳动物中仅海象与北极熊呈感染状态；7）黑熊与海象是北部地区人类感染的最主要传染源；8）开发了两种针对刚地弓形虫（Toxoplasma gondii）的诊断检测方法：多重聚合酶链式反应（multiplex PCR）与多物种酶联免疫吸附试验（multi-species enzyme immunoassay, ELISA），前者可用于检测肉类中的弓形虫DNA，后者可分别检测血液或组织液中的抗体；9）与驯鹿网络（CARMA, Caribou Network）合作，评估了一种可在北极环境下采集血液样本的吸水滤纸方法用于刚地弓形虫诊断，结果表现良好；10）在努纳齐亚武特的纳因地区开展的质性研究显示，当地居民希望由努纳齐亚武特政府与研究人员共同以实践导向的方式展示研究成果，该方式强调可视化方法与一对一互动；11）开发了一款数据录入网站及交互界面，支持添加、修改、搜索、导出与删除国际极地年（IPY, International Polar Year）标本数据。通过该系统录入的数据，已安全存储于萨斯喀彻温大学（University of Saskatchewan）加拿大合作野生动物健康中心的最新版数据库中。