Many Native Nations are restoring buffalo to Tribal lands for a wide variety of purposes, including as atraditional, cultural, and nutritious food source. Many conduct field buffalo harvests, where meat is harvestedoutside of the processing plant setting, often by buffalo program staff and sometimes community members directly.At the same time, buffalos’ increasing population means that growing numbers of communicable diseases have beenimpacting herds. Many of these diseases are zoonotic, having the potential to cross species and impact humans aswell as buffalo. This increasing instance of human/wildlife interface – at the cultural buffalo harvest – createsa growing opportunity for emerging zoonotic diseases to impact humans. It also, however, creates novelopportunities for disease surveillance, early detection and response, cooperative learning, and communicationregarding buffalo diseases and their human impacts. There is currently no offering of necropsy training that isTribally-created, and none specifically designed for applicability to cultural field harvests of buffalo.Laboratory diagnostics are often expensive, and there is no regular network of disease surveillance acrossagencies which participate in buffalo restoration activities. To address these challenges, InterTribal BuffaloCouncil and our membership of 76 Nations will design and conduct regional necropsy trainings specific to buffaloand tailored for use during cultural field harvests, will distribute necropsy kits, and create a fund availableto our membership for the submission of laboratory samples collected during either planned field harvests oropportunistic necropsies in response to buffalo mortality. This practice reflects a move towards surveilling fordisease even in healthy animals, or ones in which no outward symptoms are present. This project will also work toincrease zoonotic disease readiness on a national level by strengthening networks between agencies and sectors ofbuffalo management. At the completion of this project, ITBC will have developed a curriculum for necropsytraining, delivered four trainings that will have reached 80 Tribal buffalo program staff, developed at least twomanagement plans related to disease surveillance and biosecurity/biosafety during field harvests, distributednecropsy kits and field supplies to 80 Tribal buffalo program staff, and will have provided a steady andaccessible funding base for laboratory diagnostic fees from samples collected at buffalo necropsies. We will havecreated a database to manage necropsy data and will ideally have learned about larger trends in buffalo diseasesurveillance. We will share, network, and learn through the hosting of 8 virtual open-invitation Zoom meetingsregarding buffalo disease surveillance. Our staff will be experienced in assisting Tribes with sudden mortality,morbidity, and proactive heard health management of their buffalo herds. This project aims for an overallincrease in the normalization of conducting necropsies each time there is a buffalo mortality, whether due tosickness or to planned harvest. With an increasing eye on emerging zoonotic diseases, accompanied by training,support, and resources, Tribal buffalo programs can lead the way in monitoring wildlife and human health as therelationship between buffalo and humans is restored across the nation.
