Implications of Zoonoses From Hunting and Use of Wildlife in North American Arctic and Boreal Biomes: Pandemic Potential, Monitoring, and Mitigation

The COVID-19 pandemic has re-focused attention on mechanisms that lead to zoonotic disease spillover and spread. Commercial wildlife trade, and associated markets, are recognized mechanisms for zoonotic disease emergence, resulting in a growing global conversation around reducing human disease risks from spillover associated with hunting, trade, and consumption of wild animals. These discussions are especially relevant to people who rely on harvesting wildlife to meet nutritional, and cultural needs, including those in Arctic and boreal regions. Global policies around wildlife use and trade can impact food sovereignty and security, especially of Indigenous Peoples. We reviewed known zoonotic pathogens and current risks of transmission from wildlife (including fish) to humans in North American Arctic and boreal biomes, and evaluated the epidemic and pandemic potential of these zoonoses. We discuss future concerns, and consider monitoring and mitigation measures in these changing socio-ecological systems. While multiple zoonotic pathogens circulate in these systems, risks to humans are mostly limited to individual illness or local community outbreaks. These regions are relatively remote, subject to very cold temperatures, have relatively low wildlife, domestic animal, and pathogen diversity, and in many cases low density, including of humans. Hence, favorable conditions for emergence of novel diseases or major amplification of a spillover event are currently not present. The greatest risk to northern communities from pathogens of pandemic potential is via introduction with humans visiting from other areas. However, Arctic and boreal ecosystems are undergoing rapid changes through climate warming, habitat encroachment, and development; all of which can change host and pathogen relationships, thereby affecting the probability of the emergence of new (and re-emergence of old) zoonoses. Indigenous leadership and engagement in disease monitoring, prevention and response, is vital from the outset, and would increase the success of such efforts, as well as ensure the protection of Indigenous rights as outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Partnering with northern communities and including Indigenous Knowledge Systems would improve the timeliness, and likelihood, of detecting emerging zoonotic risks, and contextualize risk assessments to the unique human-wildlife relationships present in northern biomes.

Yup'ik identity and socioeconomic status are associated with child consumption of traditional food and weight in rural Yup'ik communities

OBJECTIVE

In remote, Alaska Native communities, traditional foods remain a significant source of essential nutrients and appear to protect against the development of chronic diseases. Relatively low intake of traditional foods among Alaska Native children is therefore of concern. The aim of this study was to identify household and parental predictors of child traditional food (TF) consumption and weight in remote Yup'ik communities of Alaska.

DESIGN

Children (10-18 years old) and parents in two communities (populations <500) were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study. Intake of traditional foods among children and parents was estimated from two-24 h recalls using NDS-R. Weight and height were measured and BMI calculated. Sociodemographic factors, including income and education, were collected from parents. A partial least square path modeling analysis and bootstrapping were performed to identify predictors of child TF consumption and weight.

RESULTS

Parental intake of traditional foods, Yup'ik identity and income were positively associated with child intake of traditional foods. Further, parental intake of traditional foods predicted lower child BMI. Parental education was negatively associated with child traditional food intake and positively associated with child BMI.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that interventions targeting parents may be an effective strategy to increase intake of traditional foods and improve diet quality among Alaska Native youth.

Bi-cultural dynamics for risk and protective factors for cardiometabolic health in an Alaska Native (Yup'ik) population

Alaska Native people experience disparities in mortality from heart disease and stroke. This work attempts to better understand the relationships between socioeconomic, behavioral, and cardiometabolic risk factors among Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska, with a focus on the role of the socioeconomic, and cultural components. Using a cross-sectional sample of 486 Yup'ik adults, we fitted a Partial Least Squares Path Model (PLS-PM) to assess the associations between components, including demographic factors [age and gender], socioeconomic factors [education, economic status, Yup'ik culture, and Western culture], behavioral factors [diet, cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco use, and physical activity], and cardiometabolic risk factors [adiposity, triglyceride-HDL and LDL lipids, glycemia, and blood pressure]. We found relatively mild associations of education and economic status with cardiometabolic risk factors, in contrast with studies in other populations. The socioeconomic factor and participation in Yup'ik culture had potentially protective associations with adiposity, triglyceride-HDL lipids, and blood pressure, whereas participation in Western culture had a protective association with blood pressure. We also found a moderating effect of participation in Western culture on the relationships between Yup'ik culture participation and both blood pressure and LDL lipids, indicating a potentially beneficial additional effect of bi-culturalism. Our results suggest that reinforcing protective effects of both Yup'ik and Western cultures could be useful for interventions aimed at reducing cardiometabolic health disparities.

Creating a Community of Practice to Prevent Suicide Through Multiple Channels: Describing the Theoretical Foundations and Structured Learning of PC CARES

It is critical to develop practical, effective, ecological, and decolonizing approaches to indigenous suicide prevention and health promotion for the North American communities. The youth suicide rates in predominantly indigenous small, rural, and remote Northern communities are unacceptably high. This health disparity, however, is fairly recent, occurring over the last 50 to 100 years as communities experienced forced social, economic, and political change and intergenerational trauma. These conditions increase suicide risk and can reduce people's access to shared protective factors and processes. In this context, it is imperative that suicide prevention includes--at its heart--decolonization, while also utilizing the "best practices" from research to effectively address the issue from multiple levels. This article describes such an approach: Promoting Community Conversations About Research to End Suicide (PC CARES). PC CARES uses popular education strategies to build a "community of practice" among local and regional service providers, friends, and families that fosters personal and collective learning about suicide prevention in order to spur practical action on multiple levels to prevent suicide and promote health. This article will discuss the theoretical underpinnings of the community intervention and describe the form that PC CARES takes to structure ongoing dialogue, learning, solidarity, and multilevel mobilization for suicide prevention.

Country food sharing networks, household structure, and implications for understanding food insecurity in Arctic Canada

We examine the cultural context of food insecurity among Inuit in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada. An analysis of the social network of country food exchanges among 122 households in the settlement reveals that a household's betweenness centrality-a measure of brokerage-in the country food network is predicted by the age of the household. The households of married couples were better positioned within the sharing network than were the households of single females or single males. Households with an active hunter or elder were also better positioned in the network. The households of single men and women appear to experience limited access to country food, a considerable problem given the increasing number of single-adult households over time. We conclude that the differences between how single women and single men experience constrained access to country foods may partially account for previous findings that single women in arctic settlements appear to be at particular risk for food insecurity.

Protective factors for mental health and well-being in a changing climate: Perspectives from Inuit youth in Nunatsiavut, Labrador

The Canadian Arctic is experiencing rapid changes in climatic conditions, with implications for Inuit communities widely documented. Youth have been identified as an at-risk population, with likely impacts on mental health and well-being. This study identifies and characterizes youth-specific protective factors that enhance well-being in light of a rapidly changing climate, and examines how climatic and environmental change challenges these. In-depth conversational interviews were conducted with youth aged 15-25 from the five communities of the Nunatsiavut region of Labrador, Canada: Nain, Hopedale, Postville, Makkovik, and Rigolet. Five key protective factors were identified as enhancing their mental health and well-being: being on the land; connecting to Inuit culture; strong communities; relationships with family and friends; and staying busy. Changing sea ice and weather conditions were widely reported to be compromising these protective factors by reducing access to the land, and increasing the danger of land-based activities. This study contributes to existing work on Northern climate change adaptation by identifying factors that enhance youth resilience and, if incorporated into adaptation strategies, may contribute to creating successful and effective adaptation responses.