Community Inquiry Plan:
This assignment required me to create a plan centered around the idea of engaging a community with inquiry, focusing on the topic of my synthesis paper. My synthesis paper focused on fleas and the diseases they spread.
This was created in my Conservation Research at Living Collections Institutions course in the Fall of 2018.
Introduction:
Fleas are a parasite that are responsible for a multitude of zoonotic diseases (Beugnet, 2013). Since fleas affect both animals and humans it is important that humans know how to protect themselves and their pets from the infectious diseases they carry. The zoonotic diseases that humans are most likely to get from fleas are Rickettsiosis, the Plague, and Bartonella (Azad, 1997). Community members should be informed about the wildlife they may come into contact with. This project focuses on the mountain lions in San Diego, California, and how fleas affect them leading to affecting humans. Fleas need to be controlled by the use of flea prevention. Flea prevention can help protect domestic animals, farm animals, wild animals, and humans by keeping them safe from certain diseases.
General Goals:
The goal of this project is to inform the public on the important role that mountain lions play in the environment and that they need the community to help them fight off fleas and the diseases spread by fleas by using flea prevention methods. Flea prevention will help contribute to the mountain lions health, the health of pets and farm animals and the health of people. The community will be informed and involved in discussions about mountain lions, fleas and the diseases they spread, methods people can use to prevent fleas and how flea prevention can benefit people. The community will unite in the fight against fleas to protect every living organism in the environment of San Diego, California.
Learning Objectives:
The learning objective for this project is to unite the community to want to help the mountain lions, by partaking in flea prevention methods. The community will learn what role mountain lions play and why they are beneficial to the environment and ecosystem. The public will hopefully gain a respect for these cats and appreciate all that they do for the environment. Once the community respects the mountain lion then human-wildlife conflict issues will decrease. If mountain lions get fleas that carry a disease then they can not have a positive impact on the environment because they will be sick, which in turn causes a negative impact on the community. Community members will learn the direct and indirect costs of fleas. The community will leave the educational discussion with knowledge about mountain lions, the flea problem and the diseases they spread, how people can prevent fleas and remove them from their animals and how a lack of fleas will benefit people and the mountain lion.
Inspiration for Creating the Project:
Inspiration for creating this project came from the desire to do something more to help protect mountain lions in San Diego, California. The land that humans have inhabited once belonged to the mountain lions. Humans have been taking over the area with little to no regard to the mountain lions, which is extremely unfair to them. Humans need to learn how to coexist with these cats, and other animals in the area, to decrease the number or human-wildlife conflicts. Both humans and mountain lions live in San Diego, so they should know how to coexist. Fleas affect both humans and animals with their zoonotic diseases that they transfer. Humans will probably care a little more about these cats if they know the cats can transfer fleas to them that can get them sick, or vise versa. It is important that humans take the proper measures to prevent fleas and the dreadful diseases they carry. Diseases spread by fleas have been known to take out entire populations of animals, therefore it is crucial that flea prevention is instilled to protect the large cats, other animals and humans (Salkeld, 2007). DJ Salkeld (2007) did a study about swift foxes carrying plague diseased fleas that caused temporary extinctions of entire colonies of black-tailed prairie dogs. If nothing is done to help protect wildlife those temporary extinctions may turn into a permanent extinction of the species.
Intended Audience:
The intended audience for this educational discussion are adults, ages 18 years and older, who are either pet owners or work with animals who live in the county of San Diego. The hope is if they own pets or work with animals that they will also care about mountain lions by understanding the important role they play in the environment.
People tend to pay more attention to things and be more strongly connected to projects when it directly affects them. Since these community members are around the animals it would make sense that there is a fear of what diseases the animals can get and pass onto people, through fleas. The animal workers and pet owners who live more inland in the east county areas will probably be more strongly connected to helping the large cats because they have more of a chance of seeing these cats near their home.
Methods and Materials:
The first method will be to get into contact with the desired organizations and specialist. This project would like to collaborate with San Diego Zoo Global and their desire to help animals in zoos and in the wild, like the mountain lion. The project would also benefit from collaborating with the Mountain Lion Foundation since they specialize in mountain lions and informing the public on everything mountain lion related. One speaker will be an infectious disease specialist who will share the health effects of the three main diseases fleas spread to both animals and humans. Another speaker will be a flea removal specialist to inform the community on how to remove fleas. Each presenter will be responsible for bringing their own materials in regards to paper work, pictures, and things of that nature. A laptop with a protection screen will be supplied for powerpoints if the speaker's desire that. Pictures of mountain lions are required so the community knows what they look like. It will be suggested that each organization and speaker send their documents to the project before the presentation so all the information can be in packets for the community members the day of the event. Paper and design options will be needed for the flyers, posters, and questionnaires.
The planned timeline for this project is to set everything up within two-three months depending on the schedules of the collaborative guest speakers. The educational discussion itself is planned for seven hours in one day. Having it all in one day will be more convenient for the community members by allowing them to only commit to one day away from work or their normal every day plans. The one day class also allows everything to be discussed in one day with all the information put out there and understood before the public disperses. There will be four days of discussions, one for each main general area of San Diego County. The four discussions will all cover the same information and have a speaker from each organization.
Step by Step Process:
The first step in this project is to reach out to organizations and personnel who will provide insightful information to the community about mountain lions, diseases fleas carry, and flea prevention. This project would like to collaborate with San Diego Zoo Global and Mountain Lion Foundation to help pass on information about mountain lions to the community members. A collaboration with a specialist in infectious disease and a flea removal specialist will also take place to inform people on the diseases fleas spread and how to get rid of them. These four representatives will explain critical information to the community, answer questions, and share information about their organization or place of employment. The organizations and specialist will be contacted by an email or a phone call and be informed why this educational discussion is important and why it should be given to the local community. They will be informed that their collaboration will not only benefit the community by sharing information to the community and the importance of the mountain lions, but it will also get their organizations name out there in the public view.
The second step is to secure a location for the educational discussion. There are eighteen cities in San Diego County with a total land area of 324.75 mi² (SOURCE). There will be four discussions throughout the county, therefore four locations need to be secured to hold these discussions. Community centers or local colleges will be used as the venue. There will be one location in the North-West part of the county, one location in the North-East part of the county, one location in the South-West part of the county, and one location in the South-East part of the county. These locations will allow people from each general area to attend one of these discussions and expand their knowledge.
The third step is to spread the word to the community about these educational discussions. Notices will go out through posters and flyers around communities, in veterinary offices, shelters and the participating partners and guest speakers areas as well as on their websites and social media. Residents that are known pet owners will be mailed flyers and see or hear commercials through T.V., radio, and ads on social media. The flyers will have a little blurb on each representative and organization attending the educational discussion. One idea for a flyer is to have a mountain lion in the Uncle Sam stance saying "Mountain Lions want You to care about flea prevention".
The fourth step will be to host the actual event. The events will take place at community centers and local colleges throughout San Diego County. There will be four discussion events offered for community members to attend, however they are only asked to attend one. Each discussion will cover the same information and same collaboration presentations. Each educational discussion will last seven hours and will be completed all in one day.
The event will begin at 8:30am and concluded at 3:30pm. This will allow a thirty minute check-in period for people to check in, use the restrooms, get a snack and find seats. A thirty minute lunch will also take place during the day where people can eat a lunch they packed or buy lunch. The presentation will begin with an introduction of the organizations and personnel who agreed to collaborate on this project. Then the representatives from San Diego Zoo Global and Mountain Lion Foundation one and a half hours discussing the mountain lion. Their topics will include what mountain lions are, where they live, what to do if you run into one in the wild, and how to coexist with them. These organizations will also share what work they are doing to help protect the mountain lions. Once that topic concludes it will be followed by a short break and then move into a presentation on fleas.
The representative on infectious disease will have two hours to discuss the three main diseases people can contract from fleas; Rickettsiosis, Plague, and Bartonella. Details included with this topic will include what the disease is, what they do to the human and animal body, symptoms, risk factors, how they spread, what the treatment is, and preventative tips. It will be mentioned that Beugent (2013) states that human factors, environmental change, and climate change are all epidemiological changes affecting fleas. After reviewing these factors and changes the speaker will move into how the diseases are transferred through flea bites, or bites or scratches from an infected animal. The discussion on zoonotic diseases will hopefully get people to think more about the possible diseases they can catch from fleas in addition to the annoyance they feel from fleas and want to do something to prevent fleas.
Once the infectious disease specialist concludes the members will be excused for a thirty minute lunch and upon their return will hear from the flea removal specialist, for one and a half hours. They will mention the different ways to get rid of fleas and the cost of each method. The flea removal specialist will go over what the local government plans on spraying to remove the fleas from the wild, how often that will occur, how it will be measured that it is making a positive impact, and how much that will cost, as well as who is responsible for the cost. They will also mention how much it costs to remove fleas from homes and pets, versus the much cheaper method of already having pets on flea prevention medication. It will be discussed that each person is responsible for themselves and their pets and that the local government should be responsible for public places and wild uninhabited areas in regards to flea prevention. With the public areas and uninhabited areas the flea removal company will spray the area with a chemical to decrease the flea population to zero. There was one study was conducted to spray known prairie dog areas with deltamethrin to see if that would control the fleas that spread the plague disease. Before the spray, 929 fleas were collected from 297 burrows and 240 fleas were found on 86 prairie dogs (Seery, 2003). After the spray of deltamethrin, it dramatically declined to zero fleas (Seery, 2003). Seery mentions that the flea collection could be influenced by weather conditions or that the host moved to another location. It is amazing that there was such a quick turn around from 1,169 fleas to zero fleas all because of one spray session of deltamethrin.
The public will be informed when the flea removal process will begin, how long it will last, what areas to avoid and for how long, what the effects will be, and the cost. For the first sprays a grant will cover the cost, with the hope that the local governments will pay for the continued sprays with taxpayer money. It will be noted that things will not change overnight, but with some time and patience a positive result will emerge. If anything negative occurs with the public spraying, the spraying will stop immediately and things will be corrected before anything else takes place. This is a learning opportunity so it may take a little bit of trial and error to find the best method that works for public and private land in regards to flea removal and prevention. If everything goes according to plan, the sprays will occur once a month, just like flea prevention with domestic pets. This presentation will be followed by a short break and then a review and question session.
There will be a thirty minute review and question and answer session with all of the organizations and presenters. This will allow the community to gain clarity on anything they missed or didn’t understand during the presentations. Once the discussion has ended community members will be asked to fill out a questionnaire and asked how they would like to receive a follow-up questionnaire, either mail or email. Each organization and presenter will be allowed a table in the back of the room with information about their organization if community members wish to stop by and learn more about them. The presenters will all be thanked, as will all the community members who showed up.
A timeline of the event is listed below.
Event Timeline:
Check in: 8:30am
Presentation on Mountain Lions Start: 9am
Break: 10:30
Presentation on Fleas: 10:45am
Lunch: 12:45
Presentation on Flea Prevention: 1:15pm
Break: 2:45pm
Review and Questions: 3pm
Check out: 3:30pm
The fifth and final step will be a follow up with the community members who attended the discussions. During the event they will be asked if they would prefer a mailed or emailed questionnaire. One month after the event they will receive their questionnaire, in their preferred format, to see how much information they retained, what changes they have made, what changes have occurred in the community and if any of the occurred changes had positive or negative outcomes. The questionnaire will also be asked if they enjoyed the discussion, their favorite part, and what could have been better or what suggestions they have to make it better. The community members will also be given an update on the public areas that have been sprayed with flea prevention spray and if the results ended with a positive outcome or a not as we had hoped outcome.
Reflections:
This project connects to San Diego Zoo Global's mission statement with the goal of helping species and uniting conservation science with a passion for nature. San Diego Zoo Global's (SDZG) mission statement is "San Diego Zoo Global is committed to saving species worldwide by uniting our expertise in animal care and conservation science with our dedication to inspiring passion for nature" (SDZG, 2018). This idea also connects to SDZG's vision statement since the goal is to help the big cats and protect them from extinction. The vision statement,"We will lead the fight against extinction" (SDZG, 2018), blends with this project’s idea since mountain lions are listed as actively decreasing(IUCN, 2018).
This project will meet the goals of the San Diego community by helping those who live in the community. Informing the public on the importance and necessity of these cats will allow them to understand why we need to protect them and help improve their health. Caring for the health of mountain lions by eliminating fleas will benefit domestic and non-domestic animals and humans throughout the community.
This plan will meet the goals of this project by instilling the idea that all animals- domestic, farm, and wild- have some kind of monthly flea prevention that benefits the health of everyone. The plan will also inform the community of the importance flea prevention provides by preventing unwanted diseases and protecting both animals and humans. In addition, this plan will make it clear how humans can contract zoonotic diseases and incur large costs. Community members will know that these diseases can be prevented with flea control.
Next Steps:
The public areas that were sprayed with a flea removal spray, like deltamethrin, will be studied before and after the spray to see what the difference is in the number of fleas. Hopefully the mountain lions in the area will be able to be studied to see if they have fleas and if any of them are flea free prior to and after the spray. If the spray shows that harm is being done to animals, humans, or the environment spraying will stop immediately and steps will be taken to try and remove the negative effects. Public areas that had fleas and became flea free will be sprayed once every month, similarly to domestic pets getting flea prevention medicine every month. If the results show that improvements are occurring and fleas are disappearing then this project can spread out to neighboring communities, like Orange County, El Centro and Los Angeles County to spread the information on flea prevention and how it benefits the mountain lion.
Effectiveness:
The effectiveness of this project will be measured by the answers community members answered to their questionnaire and from the decreased number of fleas in public areas. Every month a flea removal specialist will go out to these sprayed public areas to see if there are any fleas in the area. The success of this project relies on the number of fleas in the wild, on pets, and animals, and the community members responses.
References:
Azad, A. F., Radulovic, S., Higgins, J. A., Noden, B. H., & Troyer, J. M. (1997).
Flea-borne rickettsioses: Ecologic considerations. Emerging Infectious Disease,3(3). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2627639/pdf /9284376.pdf.
Beugnet, F., & Chalvet-Monfray, K. (2013). Impact of climate change in the
epidemiology of vector-borne diseases in domestic carnivores. Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases,36(6), 559-566. doi:10.1016/j.cimid.2013.07.003
Mountain lion foundation home page. (n.d.). Retrieved from
Salkeld, D. J., Eisen, R. J., Stapp, P., Wilder, A. P., Lowell, J., Tripp, D. W., Albertson,
D., Antolin, M. F. (2007). The Potential Role Of Swift Foxes (Vulpes Velox) And Their Fleas In Plague Outbreaks In Prairie Dogs. Journal of Wildlife Diseases,43(3), 425-431. doi:10.7589/0090-3558-43.3.425
San diego, california population 2018. (2017). Retrieved from
Seery, D. B., Biggins, D. E., Montenieri, J. A., Enscore, R. E., Tanda, D. T., & Gage, K. L.
(2003). Treatment of black-tailed prairie dog burrows with deltamethrin to control fleas (insecta: siphonaptera) and plague. Journal of Medical Entomology,40(5), 718-722. doi:10.1603/0022-2585-40.5.718
The IUCN red list of threatened species. (2018). Retrieved from
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