Arctic One Health Challenges for Northern Animals and People

This multidisciplinary book discusses the manifold challenges arctic marine and terrestrial wildlife, ecosystems and people face these times. Major health threats caused by the consequences of climate change, environmental pollution and increasing tourism in northern regions around the globe are explored. The most common infectious diseases in wild and domesticated arctic animals are reviewed and the impact they could have on circumpolar ecosystems as well as on the lives of arctic people are profoundly discussed. Moreover, the book reviews arctic hunting, herding and food conservation strategies and introduces veterinary medicine in remote indigenous communities. 

Dr. Morten Tryland is a professor in veterinary medicine – infection biology. After a period of clinical veterinary practice, he transitioned to research in virology and wildlife diseases. He has worked for 30 years in northern and arctic regions with infectious diseases, zoonoses, wildlife reservoirs and disease transmission in populations. He has been a member of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (Panel on Biological Hazards) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA; Panel on Biological Hazards), and he is currently the Norwegian editor of the scientific journal Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica. Although Dr. Tryland has been involved in several research projects in South-East African countries, he has spent most of his research career investigating infectious diseases and zoonoses in arctic wildlife and semi-domesticated reindeer. He has led or participated in projects addressing how infectious agents impact humans and wildlife in the vulnerable northern ecosystems in Alaska, Canada, Iceland and Fennoscandia, including the Svalbard Archipelago. He has spent a sabbatical period at the University of Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, and at East Iceland Nature Research Centre, Egilsstadir, Iceland. Dr. Tryland recently started in a new position, as a professor in One Health at Inland Norway University of Life Sciences, Koppang, Norway.