The trip to
Bozeman was quick and we had a great deal of work to accomplish. In addition to field sampling four bull elk and a deer, we also had several meetings to discuss outbreak control strategies and discuss future steps on disease control and surveillance. It was a very successful trip. Additionally, I was also able to introduce my Geography 327: Geography of Health to disease sampling and field work via my
webcam on cell phone. I also taught my Geography 485:
GIS for Public Health class via a
webcam and an online slide show of field sampling. The photos here show how class was taught from the back of a truck, sampling a dead elk, mapping out case locations with a
Trimble PDA running
ArcPad, and some live bison on the range. There is more information on the outbreak at
promed mail archive number 20080802.2366 if you are interested.
Outbreak investigations are always interesting. They are a combination of field work (like ecology, biology, pathology, and epidemiology) and working group meetings. Field research on outbreaks is used in a number of ways. In the SEER Lab, these data are used to expand our knowledge of the ecology of disease - or how it works across spatial scales. Spatial data will be used to improve my ecological niche models defining disease distribution and aim to improve those models. We use those to inform regions or states of potential areas where outbreaks might be more likely than others. We also use field data to better understand the distribution of cases and aim to determine how outbreaks start, perpetuate, and eventually end. Working group meetings are where stakeholders share knowledge, concerns, and ideas of how to better manage wildlife and livestock in disease areas, prepare for future outbreaks, and determine best courses of action or policy to insure domestic and wild herd health along with human public health in the event of future outbreaks.
The outbreak visited in south Texas back in July/August (see earlier SEER Lab Travel Log blog entries) was only in domestic cattle and was a much smaller number (though it is likely there were some deer affected). The goal of SEER Lab is to understand the biogeographic similarities and differences in environment, possible vectors (e.g. flies), wildlife species, and herd management that serve as driving mechanisms for outbreaks in different regions from south Texas to the northern states and Canada, and across Central Asia.
By the time we left the PVIC we had seen two of the three whales spotted between this am and later afternoon. Both of the whales we saw were lone animals and both were traveling northbound. There was a southbound animal spotted earlier in the day before we arrived. Overall a very successful day. While in the parking lot after our sightings, a PVIC staff member indicated there were ten sightings yesterday. It won't be long (maybe a few weeks) until nearly all the whales will be moving northbound again to complete this seasons migration back to the feeding grounds. There were also bottlenose dolphin sightings (of which we saw several individuals in the kelp beds), sea lions working the kelp, and there were reports of rough-tooth dolphins earlier in the day. To boot, the weather was as perfect as one could imagine, about 69 - 70, clear skies, a view to Catalina, a small crowd, and gobs of sunshine. I am looking forward to returning to the peninsula to see the northbound migration. Then later in the year, we will likely head out again to see the blue ways. We did in the fall of 2007 and it was another great visit. To learn more about the whales, the migration behavior, sightings and the facility visit http://www.acs-la.org/GWCensus.htm to read about the Gray Whale Census Project and see the latest numbers. Another great wildlife adventure right here in our backyards.
