Exploring the relationship between larvae abundance and individual caribou health

Abstract

It is known that gastrointestinal nematodes can have a significant impact on the growth of farmed ruminants. The clinical signs are often subtile, but production losses can be of big importance. Little is known about the impact of gastrointestinal nematodes in wild ruminants. I used cross-sectional data to explore the relationship between larvae abundance and individual caribou health. Being part of a two year master project, I evaluated results of 18 samples of adult caribou from the Akia-Maniitsoq herd, isolating larval nematodes from the mucosal lining of the abomasa using a pepsin-HCl digestion. The goal of this study was to discover a relationship between mucosal larvae abundance and caribou health condition. This study did not discover a relationship unfortunately, but these results are preliminary as this study is part of a two year project.