U of G Researchers Examine High Rates of Gastrointestinal Illness in the Arctic – U of Guelph
November 29, 2016
Annual rates of gastrointestinal illness in Canada’s North are among the highest reported in the world — three to six times higher than regions to the south — but there is currently little or no information about why it’s so prevalent in the Arctic.
University of Guelph researchers, along with representatives from the Nunavut Research Institute, Memorial University and the Public Health Agency of Canada, are searching for clues. Using a “one health” approach — considering how people, animals and environment intersect — they are looking at possible links between clams, dogs, surface water and zoonotic pathogens Giardia and Cryptosporidium, which can cause gastrointestinal illness.
“Instead of just focusing on dogs or focusing on food — a typical approach to answering these types of questions — we’re trying to look at it from an entire systems perspective,” says Prof. Sherilee Harper, an epidemiologist in the Ontario Veterinary College’s Department of Population Medicine and researcher for the PAWS project (people, animals, water and sustenance).
