The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded Grant Gilchrist and Catherine Soos (Environment Canada), Mark Forbes (Carleton University - Canada Research Chair in Ecological Parasitology Wildlife Conservation), and a team of researchers more than half a million dollars over the next three years to study the ecology and impact of avian cholera in Arctic breeding waterfowl.

Researchers will travel to Canada’s Arctic for two summers to study the species of interest, common eiders, which were extensively studied before the outbreaks and so baseline data are available on pre-outbreak survival and productivity. The team's objectives also include identifying reservoirs and ultimate origins of the disease, and tracking the spread of this disease in Canada's north. The research team includes Joel Bêty (University of Québec à Rimouski), Oliver Love (University of Windsor), and Sebastien Descamps (University Tromso, Norway).

Ongoing deaths in the Arctic pose a risk to the viability of breeding populations and would also have a major impact on northern communities relying on those birds for their livelihood. It is possible that wetlands during the Arctic summer act as suitable reservoirs for the disease and heighten local epidemics.

CBC News (North) – Avian cholera may spread in Arctic: scientists.

Contacts: Grant Gilchrist, (613) 998-7364; and Catherine Soos, (306) 975-5357, Wildlife and Landscape Science Directorate