The award of 5 new projects to IREC reaffirms its leadership in science applied to the management of hunting, biodiversity and health

    Five IREC research projects are beneficiaries of aid in the last call from the Castilla-La Mancha Community Board, valuing basic science and applied to the management of hunting, biodiversity and health, as well as the role of IREC as a benchmark for the sector.


    It has recently been published list of beneficiary scientific research and technology transfer projects of the last budget item called by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (JCCM) in the field of R+D+i. These aids, which are part of the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization of Castilla-La Mancha 2014-2020 (RIS3), are intended to facilitate collaboration between all the agents of the Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation System to increase the social and economic returns derived from investment in R+D+i and deal with the socioeconomic, cultural, technological, health and environmental challenges that society faces today.

    The growing concern for the rational management of natural resources and the concept One Health (One Health), have made Scientific advances towards a sustainable use of hunting resources are especially relevant. The way in which we are able to integrate hunting, biodiversity conservation and health will determine the future of the hunting activity, so basic and applied science in these areas is more necessary than ever for the resolution of problems that increasingly concern society in general and the rural environment in particular.

    This reality has been well understood by the Castilla-La Mancha Community Board, which has entrusted the challenge of advancing towards sustainable hunting management to the Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC – CSIC, UCLM, JCCM) by granting 5 scientific research and technology transfer projects linked to the management of hunting resources, biodiversity and health, with a total funding of more than half a million euros.

    The development of the awarded projects, which are highly interdisciplinary, will be addressed by IREC scientific staff in collaboration with researchers from various entities in the fields of public health, animal health, hunting and conservation.

    With a duration of between 2 and 3 years, these projects will study aspects as diverse as the Seasonal changes in bone mineralization and meat quality of Iberian deer (which could contribute to increasing the value of its meat and by-products in the market, to improve the profitability of hunting farms and to obtain bioactive substances and information of great interest for human health); the ecological and social implications of hunting activity for necrophagous birds (which will provide the keys to guarantee the long-term conservation of scavenging vertebrates in general and of vultures in particular in line with sustainable hunting management); the Epidemiology of the Crimean-Congo fever virus in Castilla-La Mancha (This is an emerging and little-known disease in Spain that is transmitted by ticks that parasitize wild ungulates and can be lethal to humans, particularly hunters); he role of wild birds in the spread of antibiotic resistance (Understanding this pressing global problem in order to prevent its expansion may be key to the conservation of certain bird species); and the protective response against different infections, induced by mycobacteria (an emerging field of research in medicine and animal health that, born from hunting research, could provide alternatives to the use of antibiotics and new adjuvants for vaccines).

    IREC Hunting Resources Research Institute

    The concession of these projects ratifies IREC's leadership in basic research and applied to hunting management, with implications for biodiversity and health, which currently has 20 years of experience in research and training dedicated to the resolution of the various ecological, health and socioeconomic conflicts associated with the management of hunting, game species and natural habitats.