Contextualized understandings of dairy farmers' perspectives on antimicrobial use and regulation in Alberta, Canada.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been largely attributed to antimicrobial use (AMU). To achieve judicious AMU, much research and many policies focus on knowledge translation and behavioral change mechanisms. To address knowledge gaps in contextual drivers of decisions made by dairy farmers concerning AMU, we conducted ethnographic fieldwork to investigate one community's understanding of AMU, AMR, and associated regulations in the dairy industry in Alberta, Canada.

Rebuilding northern foodsheds, sustainable food systems, community well-being, and food security.

Background: Multiple climatic, environmental and socio-economic pressures have accumulated to the point where they interfere with the ability of remote rural Alaska Native communities to achieve food security with locally harvestable food resources. The harvest of wild foods has been the historical norm, but most Alaska Native villages are transitioning to a cash economy, with increasing reliance on industrially produced, store-bought foods, and with less reliable access to and reliance on wild, country foods. While commercially available market foods provide one measure of food security, the availability and quality of market foods are subject to the vagaries and vulnerabilities of the global food system; access is dependent on one's ability to pay, is limited to what is available on the shelves of small rural stores, and, store-bought foods do not fulfill the important roles that traditional country foods play in rural communities and cultures.

Mercury interferes with endogenous antioxidant levels in Yukon River subsistence-fed sled dogs.

Before adopting modern corn-and-grain-based western processed diets, circumpolar people had a high fat and protein subsistence diet and exhibited a low incidence of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Some health benefits are attributable to a subsistence diet that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants. Pollution, both global and local, is a threat to wild foods, as it introduces contaminants into the food system.

The ecological future of the North American bison: conceiving long-term, large-scale conservation of wildlife.

Many wide-ranging mammal species have experienced significant declines over the last 200 years; restoring these species will require long-term, large-scale recovery efforts. We highlight 5 attributes of a recent range-wide vision-setting exercise for ecological recovery of the North American bison (Bison bison) that are broadly applicable to other species and restoration targets. The result of the exercise, the "Vermejo Statement" on bison restoration, is explicitly (1) large scale, (2) long term, (3) inclusive, (4) fulfilling of different values, and (5) ambitious.

An exploratory study of total mercury levels in archaeological caribou hair from northwest Alaska.

Over the past ten years, total mercury (THg) levels have been surveyed in Alaskan wildlife and fish as part of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment (AMAP). Beyond these studies there is little historical data on THg levels in important subsistence species for people in Alaska. A survey of THg in caribou hair from archaeological deposits would provide data to develop temporal trends for this region of the Arctic.

Identification of animal species by protein radioimmunoassay of bone fragments and bloodstained stone tools.

In forensics and archaeology, it is important to distinguish human from animal remains and to identify animal species from fragmentary bones and bloodstains. We report blind tests in which a protein radioimmunoassay (pRIA) was used to identify the species of six bone fragments lacking morphological specificity and 43 bloodstained lithic tools, knapped experimentally and soaked in blood of known animal and human origin. The submitters of the bone fragments and the bloodstained tools each listed a number of possible species, from which the testers selected the best match with the pRIA results.

A note on mercury levels in the hair of Alaskan reindeer.

Reindeer, as terrestrial herbivores, generally have low levels of Hg, but monitoring Hg levels can help in understanding ecological toxicity related to a changing environment. In this study, Alaskan reindeer were analyzed for total mercury (THg) in their hair. Both free-ranging reindeer from the Seward Peninsula, Alaska and reindeer fed a pollock-based fishmeal diet were surveyed.