KUTZ, S.J.; HOBERG, E.P.; Univ. Saskatchewan, Saskatoon; US National Parasite Collection, Beltsville: Stress in the Arctic- “Emerging” Parasitic Infections of Arctic Ungulates

In northern ecosystems, patterns of association for hosts and parasites and the potential for emergence of diseases in wildlife are increasingly a focus of concern during a period of accelerated global change. Helminth parasites and their northern hosts are highly adapted to a seemingly harsh ecosystem of limited complexity. Parasite biodiversity and distribution are influenced by narrow seasonally defined windows that constrain development and transmission and by host populations often characterized by low diversity and density. Recent parasitology survey and inventory in the north has revealed an array of emergent parasites. Umingmakstrongylus pallikuukensis, a nematode lungworm, was described in muskoxen,Ovibos moschatus, from a restricted region of the Central Canadian Arctic in 1995. Studies on U. pallikuukensis, linking environmental temperature and parasite development, serve as the empirical foundation for a model to predict and monitor the interaction of climate, host ecology, and parasite abundance and to test hypotheses about the effect of climate change on complex host-parasite systems. Additionally, Protostrongylus stilesi and Teladorsagia boreoarcticus are nematode pathogens that have emerged in muskoxen due to changes in host ecology and environment. Arctic host-parasite systems are exquisitely tuned to their environment; climate change and associated ecological change are predicted to exert profound effects on the stability of these assemblages. Faunal baselines, knowledge of parasite and host ecology, and predictive models, are essential for anticipating and detecting altered patterns of host and geographic distribution and the emergence of parasitic infections and diseases.