Susan J. Kutz

Parasites impose energetic and physiological costs on their hosts, potentially influencing behavioural time budgets, yet responses may vary among parasite taxa and host sexes. In this study, relationships between parasite burden and activity budgets in free-ranging bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in southwestern Alberta, Canada were investigated. Behavioural observations and fecal samples were collected over seven months, and fecal egg, larval, and oocyst counts were used to quantify infection with multiple gastrointestinal helminth, lungworm, and protozoan taxa. Generalized linear mixed models examined associations between parasite burden and the proportion of time allocated to grazing, rumination, and movement while accounting for age, sex, and parasite-by-sex interactions. Females spent a greater proportion of time grazing than males. Grazing also showed weak evidence of sex-specific associations with lungworm larval counts and Trichuris fecal egg counts. Rumination was associated with a significant interaction between sex and Nematodirus fecal egg counts, indicating that males and females differed in their behavioural responses to this parasite. No predictors were associated with the proportion of time bighorn sheep spent moving. Overall, behavioural responses to parasitism showed stronger evidence for sex-dependent relationships than for consistent main effects of parasite abundance. These findings highlight the complexity of behavioural responses to parasitism in wild ungulates and suggest that host sex may influence how parasite infections are reflected in time allocation to different activities.

Canada’s ambition for mineral security and its responsibilities to protect at-risk species and uphold Indigenous rights clash in the case of the Grays Bay Road and Port (GBRP) in Nunavut, an infrastructure project intended to unlock critical mineral deposits. We compiled Indigenous and Western science through a density analysis of caribou harvesting data near the proposed project site. We identified three consistently used harvesting hotspots, with the most significant hotspot lying directly in the path of the proposed GBRP project. These results indicate that the GBRP project will have significant and unmitigable negative effects on caribou conservation, food security, and Inuit harvesting rights. Prime Minister Carney claims that middle power countries must act consistently in this era of geopolitical rupture; this commitment must transfer to natural resource development reviews so that decision-making may be consistent and rooted in cross-legislation responsibilities and values, including the land claims agreements between Indigenous groups and the Government of Canada.

(1) Background: Parasites can significantly impact growth, reproductive success, and the development of secondary sexual characteristics in various species. Our study investigated the effect of gastrointestinal and lungworm parasite infections on the total annual horn growth of male bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) in Sheep River Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. (2) Methods: We collected fecal samples of individually marked male bighorns over two years to investigate parasite egg and oocyst numbers and parasite diversity in feces, and how these could potentially affect their annual horn growth. (3) Results: We found that parasite species richness, year, age class, and the interaction between age class and species richness were significant predictors of horn growth, while individual parasite species did not have a significant effect. Notably, parasite species richness positively affected horn growth in young males, whereas it did not predict horn growth in adult and old males. (4) Conclusions: One possible explanation is that young males might prioritize resources for body and horn growth, potentially at the expense of immunity or parasite resistance. Our finding contradicts the idea of parasite-mediated sexual selection, where traits like bright plumage signal good health and parasite resistance.

Many Indigenous communities in Canada lack access to veterinary services due to geography, affordability, and acceptability. These barriers negatively affect the health of animals, communities, and human–animal relationships. Canadian veterinary colleges offer veterinary services to Indigenous communities through fourth-year veterinary student rotations. Ensuring that the students and other volunteer veterinary service providers (VSP) are adequately prepared to provide contextually and culturally appropriate care when working with Indigenous peoples has not been explicitly addressed in the literature. We explored the experiences of VSP delivering services in unfamiliar cultural and geographic settings and identified: what pre-clinic training was most helpful, common challenges experienced, and personal and professional impacts on participants. Fifty-two VSP (veterinarians, animal health technicians and veterinary students) who participated in clinical rotations offered by five Canadian veterinary colleges between 2014 and 2022 completed online surveys. Respondents shared their pre-clinic expectations, sense of preparedness to practice in a remote Indigenous community, their clinical and community experiences, and any personal and professional impacts from the experience. Data were analyzed using a directed content analysis approach. Respondents highlighted which pre-clinic training was most valuable and what they felt unprepared for. Community infrastructure and resources were concerns and many felt unprepared for the relational and communication barriers that arose. VSP were uncomfortable practicing along a spectrum of care with limited clinical resources. Many VSP identified positive personal and professional impacts. Our findings suggest that pre-clinic orientations focused on contextual care in limited resource settings could better prepare VSP to serve underserved Indigenous communities.

Understanding the drivers influencing ungulate population dynamics is crucial for developing conservation and management strategies to support wildlife health. Trace and macro elements are vital for ungulate growth, reproduction and survival. Thus, the trajectory of wildlife populations may be associated with element imbalances. Element concentrations can be measured in hair, an increasingly recognised bio‐monitoring tool. However, a better understanding of the relevance for wild ungulate population dynamics is needed. This study aimed to assess if element profiles in hair reflected the population trajectory of a keystone Arctic ungulate, muskox Ovibos moschatus, and whether benchmarks could be defined for element concentrations to assess population status. We measured qiviut (hair) element concentrations of 11 muskox populations ranging across northern America, including Greenland, and evaluated the association between element concentrations and different population trajectories. Seven trace and macro elements differentiated increasing populations from declining and stable populations using linear discriminant analysis. In general, copper, selenium, iron, manganese and cobalt tended to be at higher concentrations in increasing populations, whereas zinc and calcium were generally at lower concentrations in these populations, though variations were observed among populations. Benchmarks were defined for copper, selenium and iron, indicating populations were more likely to decline below a threshold concentration of these elements (‘limit’) and increase above a threshold concentration (‘target’). ‘Limit’ benchmarks were defined for zinc and calcium where populations were more likely to be increasing below this threshold value. Hair element profiles are a useful indicator of population trajectory in wild ungulate populations. Identified benchmarks can be used to assess population status, complementing ongoing but irregular and expensive monitoring efforts like population surveys, while trace element concentrations can provide insights into the mechanisms driving population change. Hair samples can easily be collected non‐invasively or alongside other monitoring activities, enhancing proactive wildlife management and conservation.

Many health care programs in medicine, nursing, social work, and physiotherapy include practicum rotations near the end of students’ studies. Increasingly, veterinary education programs also offer community-based rotations in underserved or remote communities. While these opportunities in veterinary medicine provide many learning benefits, they can also be stressful if the students do not feel adequately supported. The purpose of this study was to explore how veterinary students are and can be supported during rotations in remote Indigenous communities in Canada. Annually, four veterinary students from the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine travel with a small veterinary team to five communities in the Northwest Territories, Canada. During the 4-week rotation, students spend 2.5 weeks providing veterinary services to companion animals in these communities. In this study, 11/20 veterinary students who participated in this rotation between 2015 and 2020 completed online surveys. Results from this study suggest that participants of the rotation often felt welcomed and supported by the communities they served and were well supported by and connected to the members of the veterinary team. Findings are applicable across community-based veterinary student learning experiences and highlight the importance of building relationships with the communities being served, picking the right team, and implementing debriefing and decompressing activities during downtime.

Background: Muskoxen are important ecosystem components and provide food, economic opportunities, and cultural well-being for Indigenous communities in the Canadian Arctic. Between 2010 and 2021,Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiaewas isolated from carcasses of muskoxen, caribou, a seal, and an Arctic fox during multiple large scale mortality events in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. A single strain (‘Arctic clone’) ofE. rhusiopathiaewas associated with the mortalities on Banks, Victoria and Prince Patrick Islands, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada (2010–2017). The objectives of this study were to (i) characterize the genomes ofE. rhusiopathiaeisolates obtained from more recent muskox mortalities in the Canadian Arctic in 2019 and 2021; (ii) identify and compare common virulence traits associated with the core genome and mobile genetic elements (i.e. pathogenicity islands and prophages) among Arctic clone versus otherE. rhusiopathiaegenomes; and iii) use pan-genome wide association studies (GWAS) to determine unique genetic contents of the Arctic clone that may encode virulence traits and that could be used for diagnostic purposes.Results: Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the newly sequencedE. rhusiopathiaeisolates from Ellesmere Island, Nunavut (2021) also belong to the Arctic clone. Of 17 virulence genes analysed among 28 Arctic clone isolates, four genes – adhesin, rhusiopathiae surface protein-A (rspA), choline binding protein-B (cbpB) and CDP-glycerol glycerophosphotransferase (tagF) – had amino acid sequence variants unique to this clone when compared to 31 otherE. rhusiopathiaegenomes. These genes encode proteins that facilitateE. rhusiopathiaeto attach to the host endothelial cells and form biofilms. GWAS analyses using Scoary found several unique genes to be overrepresented in the Arctic clone.Conclusions: The Arctic clone ofE. rhusiopathiaewas associated with multiple muskox mortalities spanning over a decade and multiple Arctic islands with distances over 1000 km, highlighting the extent of its spatiotemporal spread. This clone possesses unique gene content, as well as amino acid variants in multiple virulence genes that are distinct from the other closely relatedE. rhusiopathiaeisolates. This study establishes an essential foundation on which to investigate whether these differences are correlated with the apparent virulence of this specific clone through in vitro and in vivo studies.

Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) (nattiq (s.), nattiit (pl.) [Inuktut]) provide an important food staple for Nunavummiut (Indigenous residents of Nunavut). We studied the health of nattiit harvested by hunters from Baffin Island, Nunavut, via Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and veterinary science. We conducted serological surveys and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for select zoonotic pathogens, including Brucella spp., Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, Leptospira interrogans, and Toxoplasma gondii, in 55 nattiit from Frobisher Bay (FB) and 58 nattiit from Eclipse Sound (ES). We used a digestion assay to determine the presence of Trichinella spp. larvae in muscle samples from these seals. We conducted interviews with nine Local Knowledge Holders (LKHs) from Iqaluit (FB) and nine from Pond Inlet (ES) to gather their observations about nattiq health. The hunters evaluated nattiq health through a combination of behavior, nutritional condition, and appearance of skin and organs. They rarely observed severely ill nattiit. Hunters from ES but not from FB observed declining nattiit population numbers. In both regions, they observed increased numbers of harp seals (Phoca groenlandica). Frequencies of natural exposure among nattiit from FB and ES, based on seroprevalence, were 20.5% and 37% for Brucella spp., 25% and 11% for E. rhusiopathiae, 93% and 100% for L. interrogans, and 10% and 27% for T. gondii, respectively; PCR was negative for these pathogens in organs and tissues of seropositive animals. We did not detect larvae of Trichinella spp. Knowledge and experience from the LKHs in assessing nattiq health, complemented by negative findings from direct detection methods, provide reassurance about the safety of nattiit as country food, despite their exposure to some zoonotic pathogens in their natural environment.

Across a species' range, populations are exposed to their local thermal environments, which on an evolutionary scale, may cause adaptative differences among populations. Helminths often have broad geographic ranges and temperature‐sensitive life stages but little is known about whether and how local thermal adaptation can influence their response to climate change. We studied the thermal responses of the free‐living stages of Marshallagia marshalli, a parasitic nematode of wild ungulates, along a latitudinal gradient. We first determine its distribution in wild sheep species in North America. Then we cultured M. marshalli eggs from different locations at temperatures from 5 to 38°C. We fit performance curves based on the metabolic theory of ecology to determine whether development and mortality showed evidence of local thermal adaptation. We used parameter estimates in life‐cycle‐based host–parasite models to understand how local thermal responses may influence parasite performance under general and location‐specific climate‐change projections. We found that M. marshalli has a wide latitudinal and host range, infecting wild sheep species from New Mexico to Yukon. Increases in mortality and development time at higher temperatures were most evident for isolates from northern locations. Accounting for location‐specific parasite parameters primarily influenced the magnitude of climate change parasite performance, while accounting for location‐specific climates primarily influenced the phenology of parasite performance. Despite differences in development and mortality among M. marshalli populations, when using site‐specific climate change projections, there was a similar magnitude of impact on the relative performance of M. marshalli among populations. Climate change is predicted to decrease the expected lifetime reproductive output of M. marshalli in all populations while delaying its seasonal peak by approximately 1 month. Our research suggests that accurate projections of the impacts of climate change on broadly distributed species need to consider local adaptations of organisms together with local temperature profiles and climate projections.