Grantee Research Project Results
2018 Progress Report: Assessment, Monitoring and Adaptation To Food and Water Security Threats to the Sustainability of Arctic Remote Alaska Native Villages
EPA Grant Number: R835597Title: Assessment, Monitoring and Adaptation To Food and Water Security Threats to the Sustainability of Arctic Remote Alaska Native Villages
Investigators: Berner, James E. , Brubaker, Michael
Institution: Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2018 (Extended to June 30, 2019)
Project Period Covered by this Report: July 1, 2017 through June 30,2018
Project Amount: $888,282
RFA: Science for Sustainable and Healthy Tribes (2013) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Tribal Environmental Health Research , Human Health
Objective:
The objective of this funding has been to develop a community-based, resident-operated environmental monitoring program for use in small, remote, subsistence-dependent rural Arctic Alaskan villages. The warming Arctic climate has been accompanied by a number of environmental changes. These include the movement of zoonotic pathogens and harmful algal blooms into the circumpolar north, which have not previously seen in Arctic traditional food species. In addition, atmospheric and ocean transport of harmful contaminants and changes in forage species available for sea mammals, have introduced new risk factors to traditional foods. The extent of these new climate-mediated changes in Arctic marine environments is not well understood.
In northern Alaska, rural residents are predominantly Alaska Natives, live Arctic in very small, remote villages without road connections with the rest of the state. They depend on the traditional marine and land mammal species, and they need to adapt harvest patterns and food processing methods to reduce the climate-mediated environmental risks in their traditional diet. The primary goals of this grant are to provide monitoring tools for residents, produce data on known and emerging risk factors, and establish the means to prospectively gather future data on trends in risk factor prevalence.
Villages equipped with risk factor data are better able to develop adaptation strategies to reduce risk for vulnerable members of the community, and maintain the cultural and population health benefits of the traditional diet.
Progress Summary:
- The use of blood-soaked filter paper samples, gathered from subsistence-harvested Alaska Native hunters, has been institutionalized in the Bering Strait region. Test kits have been developed, field- tested, and distributed by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) partner in the grant, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). Training of hunters in the proper use of the test kits is on-going, and supported by ANTHC, UAF and Kawerak Inc., the Tribal Corporation for the Bering Strait region.
- ANTHC has used this grant to support UAF to further develop the laboratory methods for utilizing blood-soaked filter paper (FP) samples for a variety of environmental monitoring purposes. The method is now in use in many regions to detect the presence of antibodies to zoonotic pathogens. The use of FP sampling eliminated the need for any special equipment, freezers, or specialized storage. In this grant, the presence of antibodies to three zoonotic pathogens: Toxoplasma gondii, and Coxiella burnetti and Brucella is determined in subsistence land and sea mammals - harvested by rural Alaska Native hunters. In the 2017-2018 performance year, total of 153 specimens from four species of ice seals and other sea mammals were collected from animals harvested by Alaska Native hunters. These species included stellar sea lions, bearded seals, spotted seals, ringed seals, and ribbon seals and one walrus. Prevalence of these three zoonotic pathogen antibodies in the samples gathered in 2017-2018 has been determined, and that data will be analyzed by species, and shared with regional hunters, wildlife agencies, Tribal health agencies and public health agencies.
- Additional development of the use of blood-soaked filter paper specimens has been supported by the grant. These additional techniques now includes analysis of total blood mercury (THg), total blood selenium (TSe), the Hg:Se molar ratio, and determination of the stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen (SIRs). The molar ratio of Hg and Se is important for assessing the risk of toxicity to human consumers in traditional marine food species. Addition-ally, SIRs are indicative of the trophic level of forage. Changes SIRs ratio, may coincide with changes in ocean temperature. These developments have been ac-accomplished by the ANTHC partners at the UAF Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory (WTL). During the 2017-2018 grant year, method development of for organohalogen analysis using blood-soaked filter paper was started at San Diego State University, and is progressing towards validation of the method.
- 2017 samples of walrus and seal stomach and intestinal contents from spring hunts were analyzed for saxitoxin and domoic acid associated with harmful algal bloom toxins. Results showed the presence of both HAB toxins, in all species, at levels below regulatory levels.
- 2017 filter paper blood samples from 171 caribou showed 8.8% positive for Brucella abortus on the plate test, 1.75% positive and 1.75% suspect for Toxoplasma Gondi on indirect ELI-SA, and no positives for Coxiella burnetti. Total blood mercury was below the level of detection in all samples. These results are similar to the prior studies on this species, and no further studies are planned for the 2018-2019 sampling season.
- Residents of northwest Alaska have requested consideration of FP sampling of fish blood, primarily to assess total Hg and Se, and the molar ratio, to see if FP sampling can accurately predict muscle tissue levels, in large examples of local traditional subsistence species, such as sheepish and whitefish. These species are not commonly commercially harvested, and are not frequently monitored for Hg and Se. These studies are on-going at UAF.
- PCR testing of pooled mosquitoes from the collection sites in the Bering Strait region were 9% positive for Franciscella tularensis genes; Interior Alaska pooled samples showed 5% positive, and control sites in Fairbanks and Anchorage were both 8% positive. These results were found to show interference from mosquito DNA, and the pools will all be re-tested with decapitated mosquito specimens from the original pools. Residents of northwest Alaska have expressed concern that the Arctic warming trend has caused range extension of the lemming species that is a major vector for the severe parasitic disease, Echinococcus multilocularis (EM). The natural reservoir for the organism, are the canid species that feed on lemmings, fox, wolves and village dogs. The RAMP has examined canid specimens for the presence of Echinococcus multilocularis (EM) and Echinococcus granulosis (EG). No results are yet available.
Future Activities:
Sea mammals will continue to be sampled and tested for antibodies to the three pathogens being monitored, as well as mercury and selenium levels, and carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. Village decisions to continue sampling of stomach and intestinal contents from sea mammals for saxitoxin and domoic acid will be made later this fall.
New community concerns caused by an outbreak of human infections from Trichinella-infected walrus meat, have prompted a plan to see if filter paper sampling can facilitate detection of this infection in sea mammal species. The plan depends on the availability of known positive tissue and whole blood samples, which would have to be made available to ANTHC. Discussions are underway to assess possible sources for these samples. Examination of canid and mustelid carcasses donated by Alaska Native fur trappers, and donated samples of feces from village dogs, will allow examination of GI tract contents to detect the eggs of this parasite. This will allow estimation of the infection risk associated with village dogs, and determine the need for increased surveillance for canid and human infections, which are not usually symptomatic in early stages.
Adaptation and risk reduction strategies will be developed using data from RAMP samples collected thus far, combined with discussions with village residents and Tribal Health organizations. The objective is to enable village residents to live in their present communities and safely harvest and consume their traditional diet.
Journal Articles on this Report : 3 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 20 publications | 5 publications in selected types | All 5 journal articles |
|---|
| Type | Citation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Hansen CM, Hueffer K, Gulland F, Wells RS, Balmer BC, Castellini JM, O'Hara T. Use of cellulose filter paper to quantify whole-blood mercury in two marine mammals:validation study. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 2014;50(2):271-278. |
R835597 (2018) R835597 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
O'Hara TM, Templeton M, Castellini M, Wells R, Beckman K, Berner J. Use of blood-soaked cellulose filter paper for measuring carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 2018;54(2):375-379. |
R835597 (2017) R835597 (2018) R835597 (Final) |
Exit |
|
|
O'Hara T, Hueffer K, Murphy M, Castellini JM, Li Y, Rea L, Berner J. Developing a Sentinal-based Baja California Sur Rural Mexico Monitoring Program (BCS RMMP):lessons learned from Alaska. Recursos Naturales y Sociedad 2017;3(2):12-31. |
R835597 (2017) R835597 (2018) R835597 (Final) |
Exit |
Relevant Websites:
Local Environmental Observer - LEO Network website
Local Environmental Observer - LEO Network Facebook page
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.