Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109941

Peter M. Rabinowitz, MD, MPH¹, Joshua Dein, VMD², Zimra Gordon, DVM, MPH³, Lynda Odofin, DVM MPH¹, Matthew Wilcox, MS⁴, and Daniel Chudnov, MS⁵. (1) Yale Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program, Yale University School of Medicine, 135 College Street, 3rd Floor, New Haven, CT 06510, 203-785-5885, peter.rabinowitz@yale.edu, (2) USGS National Wildlife Health Center, 6006 Schroeder Road, Madison, WI 53711, (3) Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, 135 College Street, New Haven, CT 06510, (4) Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, 60 College Street, New Haven, CT 06510, (5) Yale Center for Medical Informatics, Yale Shool of Medicine, 300 George Street, Suite 501, New Haven, CT 06510

The concept that disease occurrence in non-human animal populations (wild and domestic) can serve as a “sentinel event” warning of environmental threats to human health has a long and colorful history. Fifty years after “dancing cat disease” in Minamata Japan presaged the outbreak of methyl mercury poisoning in humans, however, and despite the recent linkage between dead crows and West Nile infection in humans, there remain no clear guidelines for the use of “animal sentinel” data in human public health decision-making. The reasons for this are not clear, but may have something to do with limited communication between environmental health and animal health professionals. We report on the creation of an interactive, web-accessible database that assembles the scientific literature about animal sentinels of human environmental health hazards. The ‘Canary Database' is a collaborative effort of veterinarians, human health clinicians, toxicologists, vector ecologists, and field biologists. The project is funded by the National Library of Medicine, and has a goal of improving collaborative sharing of evidence about animal sentinels between professionals in diverse fields. In this paper, we will present the results of evidence-based searches of the database to shed light on the usefulness of animal sentinels in environmental health practice.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand rationale for the use of animal sentinel data as evidence in environmental health practice
• Understand barriers to the use of such data
• Become familiar with electronic database strategies to overcome such barriers

Keywords: Environmental Exposures, Environmental Health Hazards

Related Web page: canarydb.med.yale.edu

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation