Understanding the ecology of emerging bacterial pathogens in Arctic ungulates

Populations of muskoxen and caribou have been declining in the Canadian Arctic. These declines have been associated with the emergence of two bacterial pathogens: Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae and Brucella suis. These bacteria have caused significant morbidity and mortality in these iconic species, which hold immense economic, social and cultural value to indigenous communities.

ArcticEID is a collaborative project between researchers at the University of Glasgow, the University of Calgary (Canada), Queen's University Belfast (UK) and Hunters and Trappers Organizations in three Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic. Funded by CINUK, this project combines traditional knowledge with western scientific techniques from diverse fields such as bacterial genomics, ecological modelling, sociology, epidemiology and community-based wildlife health surveillance to investigate the ecology of these emerging bacterial pathogens in the Canadian Arctic.