WORT Community Radio 89.9 FM Podcast interview with Dr. Tony Goldberg

Author: Jimmy Tobias    In: The Nation

One Health is a pan-species approach that could ward off  the next big pandemic.

Authors: Waugh C, Shiung Lam S, Sonne C   In:  The LANCET

....."responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and avoiding zoonotic outbreaks in the future will necessitate a complete change in the intensity of human-managed ecosystems, with decreased deforestation and species extinction, including a reversal of the world's climate tipping points."

Author: Quamen D    In:  The New York Times

"Almost 200 bat species around the world are threatened with extinction. And this pattern of antipathy will only be made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic — given molecular evidence showing bats as the likely origin of the new coronavirus — unless we recognize the merits and beauties of these creatures, as well as the biases against them."

Author:  Michael W. Fox, BVetMed, PhD, DSc   In: American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association Journal, Vol 61,Winter, 2020

Coronaviruses and other emerging diseases could be the seeds of future pandemics. The call for ever more vaccines and medications to address these challenges remains human-centered and does not support the premise of One Health. Rather, it underestimates the importance of factors that precipitate pandemics, such as accelerating climate change, loss of biodiversity, wildlife poaching and trafficking, habitat encroachment, the ever-increasing human population, and consumption of wild and domesticated animals.

Authors:  Kaplan B, Seifman R             In:  IMPAKTER

This brings us to how to deal with so-called silent and often hidden epidemics – silent and hidden in the sense that they are not understood or seen as threats by a very large number of persons –  that can so quickly devastate hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of lives. It means recognizing the interaction of multiple disciplines, namely those that directly or indirectly affect the interaction of animal, human, and environmental health factors, namely a “One Health” approach.  Indeed the U.S. CDC also has a separate One Health webpage………………….One Health leaders worldwide have presented cogent arguments for incorporating the One Health approach, highlighting the factors of zoonotic diseases, i.e. transmissions from animals to humans.  They have also provided procedural methodologies for political leaders. In practice, this means that public health agencies could systematically include the health and surveillance of domestic animals and wildlife at the point where human and veterinary medicine interface. 

Author:  Lueddeke G.    In: Policies for Equitable Access to Health

‘The greatest challenge in our path to building more equal, inclusive and sustainable economies and societies, underscored in Survival: One Health, One Planet, One Future, lies with making a fundamental paradigm or mindshift  from seeing the world through a strictly  human-centric lens to taking a wider more inclusive eco-centric view – ensuring the needs of humans are compatible with the needs of our ecosystems.’.....What if?????

7. The unifying One Health and Well-being concept became the cornerstone of our education systems and societal institutions thereby helping create a 'More just, sustainable and peaceful world".

The Lancet COVID Commission has named a Task Force that will focus on analyzing data on all leading theories for origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, documenting outbreak investigation and control efforts, and identifying the benefits of a One Health approach in preventing future pandemics.  The group will use the findings to formulate One Health solutions for managing future zoonotic disease risk. The task force has 12 members who come from a diverse set of scientific disciplines and backgrounds, with expertise in One Health, outbreak investigation, virology, lab biosecurity and disease ecology.

See Task Force Member Bios

Authors: Kanamori H, Baba H, Weber DJ

In the challenging era of COVID-19 and natural disasters, the One Health approach on human–animal–environmental interface to infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and noncommunicable diseases are necessary. Amuasi et al. proposed the three dimensional approach of shared environment, safe food systems, and shared medicines/interventions at each interface [3]. We have incorporated the three-dimensional concept into the One Health approach in the COVID-19 pandemic (Table 1).

Author:  Marion Koopmans   In:  TheLancet.com/Infection

…..the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 in these animals raises questions about a possible role as intermediary hosts in the early stages of the pandemic. In early November, WHO announced a much-needed study into the origins of SARS-CoV-2.13 This study will need to go beyond what is currently known, including exploring the role of a range of animals kept for food, fur, or other products. There are also lessons to learn for the fur sector in other countries: there is currently no global overview of the location of such farms, and no mandatory surveillance programme. In view of our observations, that is urgently needed.

Author: Annie Mark   In: Mongabay.com

COVID-19 provides an unfortunate but essential opportunity to demonstrate the fundamental importance of the One Health approach. The world has taken notice in significant ways.

A group of researchers, doctors and veterinarians explain why the management of emerging epidemics calls for a global approach, known as “One Health”, which integrates different sectors and disciplines of human, animal, plant and environmental health.

Authors:  Kaplan B, Seifman R             In:  IMPAKTER

There have been valuable instances of crossovers between medicines first developed for animals which then have a crucial use for humans and vice versa.  One such recent case was Ivermectin, a product Merck initially designed for livestock. Once its potential human benefit was understood, it contributed enormously to the (near) elimination of River Blindness in West Africa that had been a major public health problem, affecting local economies………… combining vaccination programs for both nomadic pastoralists and their livestock…..sharing transport logistics and equipment between physicians and veterinarians reduced total costs. Joint delivery of human and animal health services was adapted …... The results were remarkable. 10% of nomadic children less than one year of age were fully immunized annually and more children and women were vaccinated per day during joint vaccination rounds than during vaccination of persons only and not their livestock. ….Simply put, we need a universally employed One Health approach in place now so we can more effectively deal with future health challenges, ones we will surely face, possibly next year or the next decade….

Author: van Nieuwkoop M     In:  World Bank Blogs

Back in early 2020, when the world was discovering the deadly impact of COVID-19, I turned to World Bank colleagues who worked on previous disease outbreaks to see what lessons we might learn and apply this time round. They univocally warned me of two risks: one, underestimating the cost of pandemics; two, falling back into a familiar cycle of panic and neglect, before any meaningful action can be taken to address the root causes of the crisis. Our conversations led me to conclude that it was high time that we invest in healthy food systems for a safer world, since so many emerging diseases arise at the nexus of humans, livestock and wildlife, with disastrous consequences.

“One Health Perspectives” panel discussion on day 2 of the summit which brought together SARS-CoV-2 researchers from Cornell’s Ithaca and New York City campuses, including Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Tech. The event was designed to share research and promote collaborations across colleges, campuses and disciplines to advance COVID-19 research.

Authors: Hansen G, Mazet J, Rushton J, Stroud C      In: National Academy of Medicine - NAM Perspectives

Barriers to sharing information, funding, goals, tools, priorities, and processes contributed to the failure to predict, prevent, and respond to this pandemic. Interdisciplinary and interagency collaborations and data sharing using a robust One Health framework will allow the world not only to be better prepared for the next crisis but perhaps to prevent it from happening at all. Even now, in the middle of this pandemic, adopting the One Health paradigm would enable a more efficient response and minimize loss of life.........

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic is a One Health challenge that begs for collaborative efforts from multiple disciplines and authorities. But a roadmap must be implemented first, by putting a One Health program in place.

Editorial        In:  Financial Times

"The Denmark cull serves as a reminder of the zoonotic origins of this pandemic and the perils inherent in overly-close proximity between humans and animals. Close to three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases in humans come from other animals and the majority of these originated in wildlife. Greater proximity increases the chances of the spread of these diseases by making the transmission of pathogens between animals and humans easier."

Author: John Drake    In:  Science Commentary, Forbes.com

"Although one health — understanding that the health of humans, animals, and the environment — isn’t the only way to think about emerging diseases, it is perhaps the most comprehensive. It also underscores the role of of ecology as an integrative science for the planet."

Authors: Robyn Alders, Osman Dar, Richard Kock, Francesco Rampa    In: Global Hunger Index Issues in Focus

The events of 2020 are laying bare many of the vulnerabilities of the world’s food system; they reveal that it is woefully inadequate for coping with the kinds of overlapping global and regional crises that we are currently experiencing and that we may expect more of by 2030. We have seen how the crises disrupt the food and agriculture sector, jeopardize the stability of human, animal, and environmental health, and have lasting implications on the global economy, livelihoods, and food security…..by taking an integrated approach to health and food and nutrition security, it is possible to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. To do so, we must design responses to the current crises and their underlying causes and move forward in ways that support the transformation of the current food system to one that is more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient…. An important element of this endeavor will be to employ a holistic One Health approach.

Author:  John Drake    In:  Forbes

Although one health — understanding that the health of humans, animals, and the environment — isn’t the only way to think about emerging diseases, it is perhaps the most comprehensive. It also underscores the role of ecology as an integrative science for the planet.

Wildlife Conservation Society Press Release

“COVID-19 has shown us the exorbitant cost of inaction. The time to act is now.”

Read The Berlin Principles

Author: Gabrielle Lipton     In:  Landscape News

Of the many forms of disaster caused by humanity’s alteration of 75 percent of the world’s terrestrial surface, COVID-19 has been a harrowing wake up call to the new reality of deadly and economically devastating global pandemics and their inextricable ties to the destruction of landscapes…….Yet, scientists and medical practitioners long predicted an outbreak of this kind – it was only a matter of what the virus would be and when it would emerge. The prophetic approach to health that foresaw this catastrophe is known as One Health, a field of research that recognizes human, animal and ecological health as interdependent and seeks to address them holistically..................Ecological health has been the lagging tier of the One Health trifecta.

Author: Sarah Gibbens    In:  National Geographic

The same forces driving extinction, habitat loss, and climate change will also lead to future pandemics, say an international group of scientists…………. The report proposes launching an international counsel to oversee pandemic prevention, financially incentivizing biodiversity conservation, and investing in research and education. These institutional changes, they hope, would curtail the reach of industries such as palm oil production, logging, and ranching.

Mathavarajah S, Stoddart AK, Gagnon GA, Dellair G

Science of the Total Environment,Elsevier, 2020, Oct 29, ttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143346

Media Release about the Intergovernmental Science - Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Report

Future pandemics will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, do more damage to the world economy and kill more people than COVID-19 unless there is a transformative change in the global approach to dealing with infectious diseases, warns a major new report on biodiversity and pandemics by 22 leading experts from around the world………Convened by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) for an urgent virtual workshop about the links between degradation of nature and increasing pandemic risks, the experts agree that escaping the era of pandemics is possible, but that this will require a seismic shift in approach from reaction to prevention.

The report offers a number of policy options that would help to reduce and address pandemic risk. Among those included:  Institutionalizing the ‘One Health’ approach in national governments to build pandemic preparedness, enhance pandemic prevention programs, and to investigate and control outbreaks across sectors.

Author: Gabrielle Lipton  In: Landscape News

Even without an end to COVID-19 in sight, more people are waking up to the fact that a ‘new normal’ doesn’t just involve face masks and social distancing. If the natural world keeps being destroyed at the present rate and governments don’t take drastic action, the future is likely to hold another global pandemic, and then another and another, in far quicker succession than has been seen in the past.

Video:  Speaker, Sharon Deem, TEDX, St Louis

We are in a global crisis.

Author: Alverston Bailey, MD   In: The Gleaner, Jamaica, WI

Author: Muraille E, Godfroid J     In: Global BioDefense

It is both a concept, a strategy, and a goal. “One Health” has gradually established itself in the life sciences, veterinary medicine, and biomedical sciences. It now dominates the communication of international public health organisations such as the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)……However, “One Health” remains little known to the public and is rarely integrated into government decision-making process. Representing a real paradigm shift, could help us better understand, anticipate, and manage the outbreak of new pandemics.

Paul Cadogan, DVM and Sarah Wilkinson-Eytle, DVM    In: The Gleaner, Jamaica, WI

One health. One love. One world.

Author:  Fulvio Mazzocchi, Rome Italy    In: Science E-Letter, September 2020

"The pandemic shows how our complex modern societies are increasingly unable of living in equilibrium with nature… One Health highlights the importance of recognizing a basic interconnectedness of human, animals and the environment, and the possibility of symbiotic relationships between them …….Establishing a healthier relationship with nature will not only require radical transformations in human behaviour (e.g. decarbonizing the economy and reverting the tendency towards progressive ecological simplification and urbanization), something whose implementation may still require decades…As sensed by One Health, it would also require a change in the mindset, questioning the above sense of divide and rebuilding an ecosophic awareness (5). We must create the conditions for a deep cultural rethinking……."

Letter to Editor - Authors: Krishna P. Acharya, Supram H. Subramanya, Dinesh Neupane    In: Veterinary Medicine and Science

Historically, there have been a number of significant infectious disease outbreaks. For example Bubonic Plague of 1665, Spanish flu of 1918, SARS‐CoV of 2002–2003, H₁N₁ influenza of 2009, Zika pandemics of 2013 and the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic. These major outbreaks have emerged from animals; Bubonic plague from rat, Spanish flu from birds (CDC, 2018; Taubenberger & Morens, 2006), spread of SARS from bats to civets to humans(Guan et al., 2003), spread of MERS‐CoV from vespertilionid bats to camelids to humans (Corman et al., 2014) and the close relatedness of SARS‐CoV‐2 to bat and pangolin viruses (Lau et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2020; Zhou et al., 2020). Over 30 new human pathogens have emerged in the last three decades, 75% of which have originated in animals (Jones et al., 2008). Animal borne emerging infectious diseases can cause significant economic shocks.

Multiple Authors

• The Two Sides of COVID-19: Pandemic and Economy, a French Connection
• Pandemic: Learning From the Past, Be Prepared For the Future
• A Beginner’s Guide to Pandemic
• Fighting the Spread of Disease With…Words?
• COVID-19 Pandemic, Present and Future: What Strategies Should We Take?
• Covid-19 A Typical Emerging Disease: Lessons From Senegal 

All these examples scattered throughout human history clearly show that the One Health concept is essential in understanding and responding to these epidemic emergencies, and in turn, the risk of pandemics. Indeed, we have seen how life sciences, social and human sectors, health decision-makers, economists and politicians have reacted (often in disparate ways) to the sudden, unexpected emergence of a pandemic.

Authors: Paul Cadogan, DVM and Sarah Wilkinson-Eytle, DVM    In: The Gleaner, Jamaica, WI

The health and well-being of everything on planet earth is interconnected. To have healthy people, we need healthy animals, healthy plants, and a healthy environment in a closely interlinked circle. Whether we are physicians, veterinarians, environmental professionals, social scientists, all people need to work together to achieve the goal of health and wellness for all – one health.

Webinar

Hosted by the Living Earth Collaborative and Saint Louis Zoo, Panelists  Dr. Lisa Kelley, Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute, Dr. David Wang, Washington University School of Medicine and  Dr. Sharon Deem, Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine

Authors:  Deem SL,  Brenn-White M       In: Molecular Frontiers Journal - Commentary

While we experience the most significant zoonotic pandemic in 100 years, we would do well to consider how we arrived at this historic moment and how we will prevent the next pandemic. In this commentary, we explore the human drivers of emerging infectious diseases and contend that a One Health approach—in which multiple disciplines work together to ensure the health of environments, humans, and non-human animals—is imperative to get through this pandemic and to prevent future ones.

Authors:  Benfield CTO, Heymann D, Clark JM, Trees AJ, Sethia B      In:  the BMJ

“The 2015-30 Sustainable Development Goals, ……, recognised the value of an integrated and ethical approach to society and the environment. From a healthcare perspective, they emphasised the importance of a One Health approach which embraces human, animal, and environmental health and appreciates their critical interdependence………… We suggest that education and training in human and veterinary medicine must more effectively embrace the concept of preventative eco-health whereby the health of all animals (including humans) is protected through preservation of the integrity of the natural world, its services, diversity, and natural ecological barriers….. Moreover, with shared drivers for disease emergence and, very often, shared pathogens, the human medical and veterinary medical sectors must adopt effective multi-speciality coordination for surveillance and rapid detection (e.g. the UK government’s human-animal infections and risk surveillance [HAIRS] group).”

Authors:  Copper Jack J, Gonet J, Mease A, Nowak K      In: Science (Letters)

See also Radio-Canada article by Phillipe Moulier about this Science – Letter: Indigenous traditional knowledge wants to participate in the fight against the pandemic     - Le savoir traditionnel autochtone veut participer à la lutte contre la pandémie    Open in Chrome for translation:

“The letter reports on an initiative called One Health which targets a unified public health approach to tackling emerging diseases. However, say the authors of the letter, scientists and policymakers often ignore the fact that Indigenous people have used this interconnected approach for thousands of years……..For the approach to be effective, the authors argue, Indigenous people would need to be able to explain globally how the One Health initiative can be applied in practice.”

Author: Roderick Lawrence    In:  Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering and Scienc

" Although discipline-based expertise is needed about coronavirus, alone, it cannot provide a comprehensive understanding necessary for effective responses to its multiple impacts within and beyond the public health sector. This article proposes that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic should be considered as an emergent, complex, contextual, and systemic societal challenge that requires concerted actions involving not only disciplinary and professional expertise but also other types of knowledge and know-how............ The known unknowns about this coronavirus can be identied and studied by applying key principles of One health, Ecological public health, and Planetary health during transdisciplinary research and practice in community settings to `collect facts on the ground' beyond the walls of laboratories."

Authors: Deem SL, Brenin-White M     In: Molecular Frontiers Journal

One Health—the Key to Preventing COVID-19 from Becoming the New Normal, Deem SL, Brenn-White M, Molecular Frontiers Journal, Open Access, Published online 30 September 2020 by World Scientific Publishing Company ; doi:10.1142/ S2529732520400039

Authors: Michel de Garine-Wichatitsky, Aurélie Binot, Serge Morand, et.al     In LANCET Planetary Health

"As the COVID-19 pandemic continues across the globe, leaving governments and public health services in shock and disarray, calls have been made for the need to adopt One Health approaches to address the failure to predict and halt the emergence of COVID-19. The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is widely suggested to have originated in Asia from a bat reservoir, possibly also involving other animal bridge species. As such, the focus of One Health on the human–animal–environment interface appears particularly compelling.  We concur, however, we warn that conceptual and institutional ambiguities that preclude the practical implementation and evaluation of One Health remain to be resolved."

Authors:  Seifman R, Kaplan B          In:  One Health Initiative website, NEWS

As a society we need to ramp up efforts to invest in One Health research, surveillance, and preparedness, to prevent or at the very least, better control the next endemic, epidemic or pandemic.   Essentially, this means utilizing a much neglected but tried and true trans-disciplinary concept to help save lives and improve the well-being of humans, animals, plants, and the environment.  “One Health” recognizes how the health of everyone contributes to the health of each species and shows how mankind can obviously impact most all parameters of life on our planet.

Authors:  The Lancet COVID-19 Commissioners, Task Force Chairs, and Commission Secretariat    In: The LANCET.com

Section 1: the origins of COVID-19 and averting zoonotic pandemics  

“2. To protect humanity from these zoonotic diseases, we need to put more emphasis on the One Health approach.  We require new precautions on many fronts: ending deforestation, respecting and protecting conservation areas and endangered species, intensifying the monitoring and surveillance for zoonotic events, and ensuring safe practices ………. “

In:  GOOP

The wildlife trade generates a lot of money, so people are reluctant to push back or attempt to control it. China’s wildlife trade is valued at about 74 billion dollars per year. In the grand scheme, they’ve lost way more from this one outbreak than they’ve made from the wildlife trade over the past ten years combined. If you have a rational economic way to think through this, then people may begin to realize that not managing the wildlife trade will cost the country and the world more than decades of profits.

Authors: Ruckert A, Zinszer K, Zarowsky C, Labonté R, Carabin H    Commentary In: Canadian Journal of Public Health

This commentary discusses the contributions that One Health principles can make in improving the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights four areas where the application of OH has the potential to significantly improve the governance of infectious diseases in general, and of COVID-19 in particular.

Authors: Morens DM, Fauci, AS    In:  Cell Perspective

It is suspected that SARS-CoV-2 emerged in 2019, as did SARS-CoV in 2002, and as did H5N1 and H7N9 poultry-associated influenza, in 1997 and 2013, respectively, from wet markets in China. These four diseases may thus represent four deadly emergences, within an18-year span, from one cultural practice in one region of the world. These and many other constitute a powerful argument that human activities and practices have become the key determinant of disease emergence.

White House adviser and infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci, MD, thanked veterinarians for aiding human health through the study of animals.  .......He also noted the importance of a one-health approach to medicine, as human health is connected with the health of animals in a shared environment.  “Emerging and reemerging zoonotic infections are truly a perpetual challenge, with 70%-75% of all new infections emerging from an animal host,” he said.

As all pandemic viruses that emerged during the last century had their origin in the animal world, and ongoing changes in the respective interfaces between humans, animals and the environment have led to an increase in major predisposing factors that allow the emergence of zoonotic viruses as novel human pathogens, pandemic preparedness measures in “peacetime” should follow a “One Health” approach.

Updated regularly based on new scientific findings as the epidemic evolves.

FAO, 2020, Rome   https://doi.org/10.4060/ca9729en

Source:  FAO

The COVID-19 pandemic and other emerging infectious diseases, as well as the continuing threat of antimicrobial resistance(AMR), are reminding us of the close connections between human, animal and environmental health and the urgent need to address them in a holistic manner. Among newly discovered or emerging infectious diseases(EIDs), 75 percent are zoonotic (i.e. transmitted from animals to humans) (Taylor, Latham and Woolhouse, 2001). The unregulated expansion of livestock farming encroaches upon pristine habitats, pushing domestic animals, humans and wildlife into closer and more frequent contact, creating the same tinderbox for disease in animals as they do in humans (FAO, 2011a).Deforestation and other land use changes have an important part in the emergence of disease(Wilcox and Ellis, 2006).

Author: Jeff McMahon    In: Forbes

It’s clear enough from the discarded masks and gloves polluting landscapes and the ocean that many humans have not grasped the environmental message of the coronavirus pandemic……“Now we must become more proactive to avoid another pandemic and address endemic zoonotic diseases,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). “This means recognizing that human health, animal health and planetary health cannot be separated, and planning our responses accordingly.

Authors: Dobson AP, Pimm SL, Hannah L, et. al.     In Science Vol 24, Jul 2020

Currently, we invest relatively little toward preventing deforestation and regulating wildlife trade, despite well-researched plans that demonstrate a high return on their investment in limiting zoonoses and conferring many other benefits. As public funding in response to COVID-19 continues to rise, our analysis suggests that the associated costs of these preventive efforts would be substantially less than the economic and mortality costs of responding to these pathogens once they have emerged.

Panel discussion hosted by Cornell University

Author: Damion Carrington  In:  The Guardian

World must act now to protect wildlife in order to stop future virus crises, say scientists

Spending of about $260bn (£200bn) over 10 years would substantially reduce the risks of another pandemic on the scale of the coronavirus outbreak, the researchers estimate, which is just 2% of the estimated $11.5tn costs of Covid-19 to the world economy. Furthermore, the spending on wildlife and forest protection would be almost cancelled out by another benefit of the action: cutting the carbon dioxide emissions driving the climate crisis.

Author: Enric Sala    In : National Geographic Magazine

“A healthy natural world is our best antivirus.”  Sala makes the case for protecting our planet in order to protect ourselves in this piece in the September 2020  issue of National Geographic. He discusses how we ourselves have jeopardized our health by degrading our planet

Author:  Sonia Shah   In:  The Nation

The way we talk about contagion matters. It shapes how societies respond—and whether many of us will survive.

It’s time for a new story, one that more accurately captures the reality of how contagions unfold and why. In this story, pandemics would be cast as both a biological reality and a social phenomenon shaped by human agency. And the coronavirus, if cast as any kind of monster at all, would be a Frankenstein’s monster: a creature of our own making. We, after all, created the world in which SARS-Cov-2 evolved, one in which our industry has swallowed up so much of the planet that microbes from wild animals easily slip into livestock and humans. We created the society of overcrowded prisons and nursing homes staffed by underpaid employees who must work in multiple facilities to make ends meet; in which employers force their workers to labor on meatpacking lines even if they’re sick; in which asylum seekers are crammed into detention centers; and in which people living in hard-hit cities like Detroit lack access to clean water with which to wash their hands………………….

Progress toward this new paradigm has already begun, thanks to a new approach called One Health

Author not stated.   In:  Leaders Magazine  Vol 43, No 3

As you look to the future, does there need to be a holistic approach that takes into account global health ssues, climate change, migration, poverty, racism and other factors when preparing for future crises? Do you feel that these factors are interrelated?  

Absolutely. In public health this is called “one health,” and it’s the concept that the health of humans is intricately connected with the health of the environment and the health of animals. Let me give you an example. In the forest region of Guinea in late 2013, a village had moved into land that was previously purely forest. As the village used more land, animals were pushed further into the forest. A bat that had been living in a tree defecated in the dead tree. A child from the village was playing in the tree and came into contact with the bat excrement. The bat had been carrying the virus that causes Ebola, and the child became infected. The disease then spread from person to person – starting in that village and traveling with the people as they sought help – until more than 11,000 people were dead across three West African countries………………. What we do to the environment affects us, whether it’s through climate change, overpopulation, migration, or any other reason that can bring animals and humans together in detrimental ways and allow diseases to jump between animals and humans. We really need to understand this concept and take all these aspects into consideration as we work to protect the health of people, animals, and the environment.

Blog post, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

For Dr. Ronald Labonté, a social scientist and public health expert at the University of Ottawa, these types of [zoonotic diseases]  infections top the list of global health challenges that deserve our urgent attention. The trouble is that they are not simple to address, as contemporary human-animal interactions that are driving the risk for infection are complex and profound.........“We cannot respond effectively through any one sector alone,” he explains. “We need to bring animal, human, environmental, and social sciences together to collaborate and find solutions.”

Author: Laura H. Khan  In: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist 

“After reporting cases of viral pneumonia to the World Health Organization in late 2019, Chinese authorities shut down a food market in the city of Wuhan that many people suspected was linked to the outbreak, but much remains uncertain about the origins of the pandemic. In any case, the coronavirus has since spread around the world, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and battered the global economy. It’s not enough to protect clean water, block agricultural pests at the border, and monitor diseases with separate, uncoordinated agencies. If we needed any more proof of the links between environmental, animal, and human health, the coronavirus pandemic has provided it in spades. A new Department of Health Security based on the One Health approach would ensure that health and well-being would become one of the federal government’s top priorities. By highlighting the limitations of the siloed federal approach to human disease, the environment, and agriculture, COVID-19 has created an opening for the next administration to do something different.”

Author: Luis Esteban Guijarro  In: La Comarca (Open in Chrome for translation)

“We have learned that, exercising the criticism, necessary in democracy, punctual agreements can be reached trying to serve citizens and opening a gap in polarization, promoted by bad managers. We have also learned, in Ciudadanos, how hard it is. Fifteen weeks ago I wrote, on these same pages, about the importance of Public Health. I invite you to reread the article so that, in light of what happened, they claim an increase in their weight in political decisions, and in their financing, from the «One Health» approach, to tackle animal and human diseases globally, with the environment as a fundamental component for their development. If we do not want to continue being the "blind who see without seeing" in Saramago, let us learn quickly, because only by facing these reforms will we remove the feeling that the worst is yet to come.”

Author: Amanda K. Fowler  In: Dogtime.com

“Many federal agencies are collecting health data in the US. Often, this information is not shared between agencies. Consequently, trends are not detected early or information on potential disease outbreaks isn’t shared widely. Sometimes when we see infectious diseases begin to spread, they have already been present among animals, in the same form or a different form, before they reach humans. Once an outbreak has been detected, the federal response may be disjointed because a coordinated plan wasn’t in place. The One Health Act will help us identify and further understand these diseases and their potential through shared data. We will then be better prepared with a response plan to prevent future pandemics by observing and analyzing trends to provide a quicker and more thorough response.”

In: Veterinary Practice News

“These days, the fight against zoonoses largely leans on a multidisciplinary One Health approach to medicine, which states human, animal, and environmental health are inextricably linked. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates approximately 60 percent of viruses that infect humans can originate from animals, says Cassandra Tansey, DVM, DACLAM, chair of the World Veterinary Association (WVA) Strategic Focus Group on One Health. “Zoonotic disease transmission is associated with disturbed and degraded wildlife habitats and increased human-wildlife interactions, both of which are exacerbated by global climate change,” she adds.”

Author:  Dan Lucey   Blog Post in: IDSA's Science Speaks - Global ID News

What does a “One Health” (human, animal, environmental) blueprint map of the market show in terms of:

• The 33 positive and 552 negative “environmental samples”;
• The more than 27 persons epidemiologically linked to this Market
•  All the negative, and any positive, specimens from specific animals.

Author: Shared Value  In: Valor Compartido (Open in Chrome for translation)

“It is for this reason that micro, medium, small and large companies need to opt for new measures of health, social and ecological responsibility to enter a  new normal  after confinement and to know the rearrangement of powers and new potential consumers. The reason why it is important to have a social and ecological awareness is to avoid new probable pandemics, since the new coronavirus is a consequence of the interference, indifference and overuse of man in the environment, “the destruction of habitats and the Loss of biodiversity are changing the dynamics of disease, ” says Christine Johnson, researcher at the One Health Institute.”

Author: News Current  In: Finanz Nachrichten (Open in Chrome for translation)

“Looking back, it can be said that vaccinations have contributed significantly to the health of humans and animals. At the heart of future-oriented health management is the "One Health" approach. Prevention is better than cure - these few words summarize the importance of vaccination for preventive health protection. World Animal Vaccination Day, for which the World Veterinary Organization and HealthforAnimals, the global association of veterinary drug manufacturers, have reserved April 20, is intended to help raise awareness of the importance of vaccination.”

In: Diario Veterinario (Open in Chrome for translation)

“Taking into account the animal origin of this pandemic and the 'One health' approach recommended by WHO or FAO for this and other zoonoses, the College of Veterinarians of Alicante insists on claiming this approach to monitor the evolution of the pandemic in the city. Hence, they also propose to carry out " continuous monitoring of the municipal wastewater in order to alert us to the appearance of new outbreaks, and to do so with greater anticipation than with conventional epidemiological tests, which would expand the scope for decision-making."

Author: Paula Mendez  In: Diario Veterinario (Open in Chrome for translation)

“Faced with the impact of COVID-19, FAO recommends applying the 'One Health' approach, a perspective where animal, human and environmental health work together to achieve the best results, understanding that the relationship between these three agents is decisive to understand any threats to food systems, livestock production and livelihoods.”

Author:  John Bellamy Foster and Intan Suwandi In: A’lencontre.org (Open in Chrome for translation)

“New viruses are also not the only emerging global health problem. The excessive use of antibiotics in the food industry and modern medicine has led to the dangerous growth of superbugs, which has resulted in an increasing number of deaths. This number could exceed, by the middle of the century, the annual number of cancer deaths, and has prompted the World Health Organization to declare a "global health emergency" [69].As the communicable diseases, due to the unequal conditions of the capitalist class society, strike especially the working class and the poor, as well as the populations of the periphery, the system which generates these diseases in the pursuit of quantitative wealth can be accused, as Engels and the Chartists did in the 19th century, of social murder. As the revolutionary developments in epidemiology represented by "One Health" and "Structural One Health" have suggested, the etiology of the new pandemics can be linked to the global problem of the ecological destruction brought about by capitalism.”

Author: Gustavo Garcia  In: El Boletin (Open in Chrome for translation)

“The popular ones also offer coordinated care to people who have suffered the pandemic and their families through a Covid Office for Victims, that there be organizational improvements in Primary Care and provide stability in employment and a better remuneration policy. for toilets. Increased number of nurses or the 'return' of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition to the organic structure of the Ministry of Health are other claims by the party led by Pablo Casado, which also puts veterinarians in focus. Specifically, the PP advocates participation in the epidemiological surveillance network of veterinarians, 'Given the close relationship between human health, animal health and respect for the environment, under the 'One Health' concept and in the prevention of epidemics and epizootics.'”

Author: Claire Taylor  In: The Scottish Farmer

“As an excellent example of a One Health approach in action, the Moredun-SRUC testing node is the first major veterinary centre working to support NHS labs with testing in the UK. The collaborative team will be using Moredun’s specialist high-containment facilities, for working with high hazard group pathogens to enable the safe handling of samples for SARS-Cov-2 testing combined with SRUC veterinary labs’ capability to deliver high throughput PCR testing.”

Author: María Castañeda  In: Moncloa.com (Open in Chrome for translation)

“The professor at the Complutense University refers to tasks that are necessary to ensure and maintain the health of everyone, that is, the "One Health" (concept One Health ). "Thus veterinarians have been at the forefront of the primary sector (medicine and livestock and aquaculture production), in food safety (slaughterhouses and food inspection), control and quality of food industries, in companion animal clinic , in medicine and surgery of sports and leisure animals , in analysis laboratories , in leading research centers, in customs control and border inspection, in wildlife management and in the protection of the environment ”, specifies Pérez Alenza.”

In: Diario Sevilla (Open in Chrome for translation)

“A total of 11 partners participate in this project , and the approach is totally global, attending to the “One World One Health” concept, which is why our partners include prestigious hospitals, universities and institutions. The situation produced by COVID 19, in recent months, becoming a pandemic, made us reorient our priorities and focus our efforts on the development of diagnostic tools for the detection of this new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, presenting a solution fast and effective to provide the necessary instruments to control this pandemic.”

Author: Jobs Seok  In: Jejusori.net (Open in Chrome for translation)

“This is possible only in a harmonious relationship between gene expression, food quality, and affluent environment. This is because we start with processing food first. Bees look for elements that cannot be made by themselves from the surrounding ecosystem. If the ecosystem is destroyed, food will not be available. And it synthesizes with the elements made in your body to make nutrients, that is, royal jelly. Various nutrients contained in royal jelly act on a receptor, which is a kind of switch, to activate genes. So there is an old saying,'If you want to know people's health, look at the field, the ecosystem.' COVID 19 originated from human ignorance and abuse of nature and animals. More than 75% of new infectious diseases in humans are common infectious diseases, and most of these common infectious diseases are wild animals or livestock. As long as humanity is currently transforming nature into a large-scale farmland, destroying ecosystems, expanding contact between wild animals and humans, and continuing planting, epidemics such as Covid 19 will continue to threaten the global economy and human life. Will exist as Even if a vaccine or treatment is developed, it will reappear as another type of epidemic and the cycle will be shorter and shorter.  Now that humans, animals, and natural environments are connected as one, the concept of'One Health', where humans, animals, and ecosystems are connected by health, is necessary.”

Author: Surging News  In: Sina Technology (Open in Chrome for translation)

“While concluding this article, we must realize that the philosophy about One Health needs to continue to be written. The naming of this method determines which disciplines will be involved. Choosing a health definition will also determine which parts of health are more important. These will affect One Health's impact on scientific research and education.”

Author: Maria Mento  In: New Nortizie (Open in Chrome for translation)

“What does " One health " mean ? And what is the help that veterinary medicine provides us with the understanding of those viruses that make the animal-human jump ? This was clearly explained by Professor Antonia Ricci , Director of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Venice , who was invited by the Governor Luca Zaia to take part in the press conference to update the status of the emergency. With her also the virologist Calogero Terregino : these are the two professionals - explained the Governor - who sequenced the virus in Veneto. The teacher said reassuring words and explained why we will most likely not fall into the drama we have experienced in the past few months: why we have changed the way we act.”

Author: NCDC Communications  In: The Nigerian Voice

“The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control is the country’s national public health institute, with the mandate to lead the preparedness, detection and response to infectious disease outbreaks and public health emergencies. The Bill for an Act to establish NCDC was signed into law in November 2018, by President Muhammadu Buhari. The mission for the NCDC (2017-2021) is ‘To protect the health of Nigerians through evidence-based prevention, integrated disease surveillance and response activities, using a One Health approach, guided by research and led by a skilled workforce’.”

In: Diplomatie Belgium (Open in Chrome for translation)

“One Health will therefore not be able to immediately prevent new pandemics, the principle is still in its infancy. But this holistic view of health has a lot to teach us and will better equip us against new diseases. One Health is therefore essential to meet the health challenges of the 21st century. Research, practice and policy must work together. It is only on this condition that new knowledge can lead to the necessary political measures and adequate behavior.”

In: Aquae Officiel France (Open in Chrome for translation)

“In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concept of “One Health” seems particularly topical and could find here an opportune period to deploy itself more widely. The reason ? This notion, which means “  unique or global health ”, is based on a global understanding of environmental, animal and human health . And if the species responsible for SARS-CoV-2 still raises questions, the animal origin of the virus is indisputable for the scientific community. Still little known to the public, could the “ One Health” strategy be integrated into government action plans to participate in the anticipation and management of pandemics?”

In: The Star

“To minimise the public health risks of viral disease emergence from wildlife and to safeguard livestock-based production systems, the authors recommend precautionary measures that restrict the killing, commercial breeding, transport, buying, selling, storage, processing and consuming of wild animals. The world must increase vigilance through building and improving detection capacity, actively conducting surveillance to detect and characterise coronaviruses in humans, wildlife and livestock, and to inform human behaviours in order to reduce zoonotic viral transmission to humans, researchers said.”

In: Animal’s Health (Open in Chrome for translation)

“Within his presentation, the president of the CACV has called for a greater active participation of the Veterinary profession in the Andalusian Public Health system, since veterinarians are crucial for the prevention of zoonoses, diseases transmitted from animals to man, such as the current Covid- 19. He also wanted to emphasize the recognition of Veterinary Centers as health facilities ; increase and support training in educational centers on responsible tenure and Food Security; promoting veterinary research to meet current and future challenges; create multidisciplinary teams with veterinary professionals, thus promoting the ' One Health ' concept ; or the need for increased public health promotion to make it more visible to the public.”

Author: Susan Glazer   In: Congressional Quarter Research

The pandemic circling the globe is only the latest instance of an infectious pathogen that jumped from animals to humans, known as a zoonotic disease. COVID-19 likely came from a bat; AIDS, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola, West Nile and Lyme disease also originated in animals. Zoonotic disease outbreaks have been occurring more often since the 1940s as an expanding human population pushes deeper into forests for hunting, agriculture, mining and housing. Demand for exotic meat also brings live wildlife to food markets, where they can transmit viruses to other animals and humans. How to prevent the next pandemic is a matter of vigorous debate: Some scientists are pushing for more research into animal viruses, while others stress stopping human activities, such as deforestation, that can spur contagion. Conservation groups urge a ban on the wildlife trade, but critics say that will only encourage a black market. Some researchers and environmentalists say preserving wilderness and biological diversity is key to preventing more outbreaks.

Web posting, ClearIAS, Inda

“The need for greater interdisciplinary collaboration was identified with the emergence of zoonotic viruses with pandemic disease-causing potential in the early years of the 21st century. Changes in land-use patterns, climate changes, etc. disrupt habitats and cause new diseases to pass to animals. Rapidly growing human population result in more people living in close contact with wild and domestic animals, which provide more opportunities for diseases to pass between animals and people. Due to the explosion of international travel and trade, such diseases can spread quickly across borders and around the globe. Thus, existing or emerging zoonotic diseases can transform into a pandemic.”

Author: Rishika Pardikar  In: Sojourners 

“In addition to working with local communities, PREDICT collaborates with scientists from Africa and Asia. Pandit explained that local scientists and other local experts are the ones who really know about the wildlife in the region and the unique interfaces between humans and wildlife from where diseases might spillover. “If you have trade relations with a country, if you have people travelling between your country and another country, you should also then be doing health collaborations, because you are vulnerable to diseases that might emerge from their countries, and they are vulnerable to diseases that you may carry,” Vanak explained. Pandit echoed Vanak’s insistence on cross-country cooperation: “Global collaborations are a must … starting from sharing genomes to developing vaccines and deploying these vaccines throughout the world.” Pathogens, Pandit added, don’t know anything about human borders or boundaries.”

In: The Atmore Enterprise Opinion 

“As we’ve written here before, following the One Health philosophy, nations around the world need to base their economies on an understanding that nature is the foundation for development. That is the only way to prevent more deaths from animal-to-human diseases, like the coronavirus, and to deal with the climate crisis and the precipitous loss of species.”

Author: John Bellamy Foster  In: Resilience.org

“The sudden appearance of dangerous new zoonoses such as SARS, MERS, and H1N1 resulted over the last decade in the rise of the One Health approach to the etiology of disease, bringing together analyses from zoology, microbiology, epidemiology, ecology, veterinary medicine and public health, aimed at developing a more systematic approach to epidemics. Though superior to earlier, reductionist approaches, and quickly adopted by the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, the dominant ideological basis of One Health meant that it backed off from a holistic approach in one very crucial respect: the consideration of capitalism, including the scrutiny of agribusiness and global commodity chains.”

Author: Ferris Jabr   In: New York Times

“Eliminating zoonoses is effectively impossible. Our survival depends on an intricate web of connections to other living creatures, including micro-organisms. We cannot sanitize the planet or live in hermetically sealed bubbles. We cannot prevent new viruses from emerging. But we can significantly reduce the risk of dangerous pathogens spilling from animals into human populations. In the wake of SARS and the early stages of Covid-19, the most obvious target for reform is the wildlife trade………. More than any other entity, viruses and microorganisms expose the fallacy of our tyrannical choreography. We are used to thinking of ourselves as the protagonists of every landscape, but from the perspective of infectious microbes, we and other large creatures are the landscape. As we restructure Earth’s biosphere to suit our whims, we open hidden conduits between other animals’ microbiomes and our own. Once those channels are in place, pathogens can no more stop themselves from spilling into us than water can prevent itself from running downhill. We cannot blame the bats, mosquitoes and viruses. We cannot expect them to go against their nature. The challenge before us is how best to govern ourselves and stymie the flood we unleashed.”

Author: Press Trust Of India  In: Express Health Care India

“‘Social security has been strengthened by ensuring that marginalised and vulnerable sections of the society were not affected by regulatory measures. The idea of One World One Health, of the United Nations, was implemented,” the minister said during the webinar, an official release said. She explained that the experience that the state health department gained while dealing with the Nipah outbreak of 2018 has helped in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. “While the COVID-19 pandemic was first reported in Wuhan province of China, Kerala had started preparing to deal with the pandemic following the directions of the World Health Organization.”

Author: María Castañeda  In: Moncloa (Open in Chrome for translation)

“In Badiola's opinion, the mistake this government has made is "that of thinking that the animal world and the human world are different." Regarding the Ministry of Health, “I have found it very regrettable that he has not been aware that we are a health profession, nor aware of the movement that promotes the concept that was put into value a decade ago in the United States of 'One world, Una salud '( One world, One health ) ”, explains the professor at the University of Zaragoza. Badiola criticizes that the Government has "ignored" a concept that precisely "comes to avoid problems like the one we are experiencing" and adds "it seems unbelievable that the Ministry of Health has not been aware", in this sense.”

In: The Animal Health Journal Spain (Open in Chrome for translation)

“The possible participation of domestic animals in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans is not clear , and it is of great importance to investigate which animals could act as intermediaries and what role they would play in the spread and evolution of the virus. When they sequenced the viruses from these animals, they found that their sequences were identical to those of their owners, also positive for SARS-CoV-2. Until now there is no evidence that pets can transmit SARS-CoV-2 to people, making it essential to clarify it to avoid risks of abandonment due to fear and ignorance. Therefore, this project proposes to address the problem of SARS-CoV-2 from the ' One Health ' perspective , integrating control and monitoring of the health of animals and people.”

In: Diario Veterinario (Open in Chrome for translation)

“After the experience derived from the COVID-19 crisis, it was also discussed the advisability of having a National Public Health Agency, to coordinate actions throughout the territory, “which should be of a marked preventive nature, and not so much assistance, because experience shows that in order to contain the pandemic, it is necessary to go ahead of the disease and prevent its spread through measures that make hygiene extremely difficult as long as the vaccine arrives. It is time to make a firm and determined commitment to the 'One Health' approach to health policy in Spain, and the creation of the Agency goes along these lines,” says Luis Alberto Calvo.”

In: The Animal Health Journal Spain (Open in Chrome for translation)

“‘The first recorded death took place on February 13, although it was not detected until March 3 after a change in the criteria for defining cases made by the Ministry of Health on February 27," they point out. And, they point out, it is necessary to have “as soon as possible a plan to reinforce surveillance systems that includes technological resources and a pool of specialized professionals necessary to provide an adequate response to any crisis that puts individual health at risk and collective ”. They also ask that veterinarians participate in the epidemiological surveillance network, "given the close relationship between human health, animal health and respect for the environment, under the 'One Health' concept." They also ask to strengthen their participation in the prevention of epidemics and epizootics.”

Author: Wufei Yu  In: Outside Online

“There are over 1.6 million viruses lurking in animal hosts across the globe, and more than 650,000 have the potential to infect people, according to researchers at the One Health Institute at the University of California at Davis. In fact, nearly 75 percent of the diseases affecting humans today stem from wildlife. SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the current pandemic, is thought to have originated in bats and believed to have been transmitted to humans via wild animals for sale at an open-air market in Wuhan, China. In addition to the vast number of viruses, scientists at the One Health Institute say that viruses are also mutating faster than ever. Urbanization and climate change, as well as activities like logging, poaching, and animal trafficking, have shrunk and fragmented natural habitats, which in turn has led to increased contact between humans and wildlife and more opportunities for viral mutation.”

Author: Eric Muraille & Jacques Godfroid  In: The Conversation (Open in Chrome for translation)

“We all live in the same world, and both our health and our economy depend on its condition. If we are to achieve the United Nations' millennium development goals , it is imperative to take into account the multiple interactions between public health, the economy, animal health and the environment. It is nevertheless clear that the “One Health” vision is rarely adopted by political decision-makers, as highlighted by the chaotic management of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

In: Mirage News

“Around two-thirds of CGIAR’s existing research portfolio is already directly relevant to tackling the coronavirus outbreak. The work of most immediate relevance encompasses four research pillars: food systems, One Health (the human-animal-environment health interface), inclusive public programs for food security and nutrition, and policies and investments for crisis response, economic recovery and improved future resilience. These priority areas aim to address the potential impacts of the pandemic on poverty, hunger and nutrition, as well as by taking the opportunity to “build back better” for a healthier and more sustainable future.”

In: Diario Veterinario (Open in Chrome for translation)

“ZODIAC aims to help veterinary and public health officials identify these diseases before they spread . "We have seen an increase in the number of zoonotic epidemics in recent decades: first Ebola, then Zika, and now COVID-19. It is important to control what is in the animal kingdom, both wildlife and livestock, and to act quickly on those findings before pathogens jump on humans, "Viljoen explained. Following the One Health concept for a collaborative multidisciplinary approach between authorities and specialists in human and animal health, ZODIAC will benefit from the only joint FAO / IAEA laboratories and partners such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE).” 

Author: Nathan Rott    In:  NPR, National Public Radio - Environment and Energy Collaborative

Author: Kwon Seung-moon  In: Pressian.com (Open in Chrome for translation)

“The reality of not being able to take off the mask even in this summer's heat wave is providing a challenge called the dilemma of fighting Corona19 and preventing heat waves. The problem is that during the climate crisis, Corona 19 is not a black swan (a term that calls the event when something that seems unusual and unlikely to happen), but a new normal that we will often encounter in the future. Economic standards). The causes and effects of climate change, such as fossil fuel use, indiscriminate development and forest destruction, and ecosystem disturbance, will continue to threaten human health by triggering the emergence and spread of new viruses like Corona 19. To respond to the climate crisis, the'One Health' approach, in which the health of people, animals, and ecosystems is one, is necessary, and an adaptation policy based on climate change must be urgently prepared and implemented.”

Author: newspaper  In: Politica Mente Corretto (Open in Chrome for translation)

“The worldwide coordination of scientific research on wildlife during this period of crisis will therefore provide unexpected opportunities to start a renewed coexistence between humans and other animals, with benefits for all species and global health (One-Health). We will rediscover that our health depends on the environment, but that the balance of the environment depends on us.”

Author: Crawford Kilian  In: The Tyee

“Horton foresees political parties actively recruiting more scientists, if only to meet the demands of a changed public. “Publics will no long view disease as a pathology of the body,” he predicts. “We will see disease as a pathology of society.” Medicine and other sciences will change as well, adopting the concept of “One Health” — that the health of humans and that of animals are linked. Universal health care will be not just a nice idea for rich countries, but a matter of self-preservation for rich and poor alike: “My health depends on your health. Your health depends on my health. We cannot escape one another.” How we are to achieve a pandemic-proof society is up to us. But Richard Horton has pointed the way, and if we fail we will have no one to blame but ourselves.”

Author: Sheila Wertz-Kanounnikoff & Kristina Rodina  In: Landscape News

“It is well known that the benefits of forests span a far greater range than straightforward timber production. They serve as a source of food, medicine and fuel for more than one billion people. They act as carbon sinks, alleviating the effects of climate change; they nurture our soils, play a crucial role in water and air purification and are home to more than three-quarters of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. As we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is worth reflecting that forests also act as a critical bulwark against infectious diseases. One event of the COVID-19 FAO Forestry Webinar Week (22-25 June 2020) therefore addresses how forestry dynamics and considerations associated with health and livelihoods of forest-dependent people can be strengthened in the One Health approach to build back better. We must put the brakes on ecosystem degradation, deforestation and biodiversity loss to stem the emergence of future pandemics.”

Podcast in Talking in Biotech Podcast

Author: Paula Froelich  In: New York Post

“Our study shows how the run-of-the-mill viruses can amplify to a potential spillover into people,” she added. “This issue is more than just wet markets, it’s everything that leads up to them. We need to protect local subsistence hunting but stop the major trade for urban markets. We can decrease the risk of a pandemic on a global scale if we do that.”Peter Knights, CEO of WildAid, a conservation organization that works to end illegal poaching and consumption of wild animals, agrees. He told The Post in May: “Sixty percent of infectious diseases originate in animals and are transferred to humans … and the risks are increasing with deforestation and climate change. When someone … builds roads into the wild, we come into contact with species we aren’t supposed to. Humans then drive these animals into big cities and sell them at live markets, where the risks increase when you stress these animals or mix these species together.”

Author: Yem Lam  In: Tuoitre Vietnam (Open in Chrome for translation)

“Scientists think the COVID-19 pandemic should be a warning bell about having to see animals as "partners" and care to protect their health and habitat to prevent a global outbreak. This is the approach that WHO calls "One health" - see human, animal and environmental health as a closely related block. This approach also requires concerted action between sectors such as health, animal health and the environment to achieve the best possible health outcomes for all species. "There needs to be a cultural change from the community upward about how we treat animals and our understanding of the biosafety risks and risks that we take on ourselves. - Kate Jones, a professor at the University of London, told the Washington Post - It means to think long-term to keep the ecosystems intact, not destroy them. "

Author: Chandan Kumar  In: Hindustan Times

“The Covid-19 testing for animals began on April 6 and so far 43 samples collected from tigers, leopards , lions, black bears, bats, monkeys, elephants, wild boars and bisons from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Delhi have been tested. All these samples were found negative except that of a tiger and lion sent from Jaipur zoo. The results of both these samples are awaited. The testing of samples of both animals and humans is part of the push for the idea of ‘one health’ which believes that human and animal health is closely interlinked. The idea has been an integral part of IVRI since its inception. In 1889 when the Institute was established to look for cure of animal diseases, Dr Alfred Lingard, a physician, was made its first director. “Covid-19 pandemic has proved again that we need to work in the direction of one health,” said Singh. The institute has also begun research to develop a Covid-19 vaccine for animals and hopes that it may pave the way for human vaccines.”

Author: Ki Sung-hoon  In: Money Today (Open for Chrome in translation)

“WWF said it needs the concept of'One Health', where humans, animals, and ecosystems are linked to health in order to prevent the destruction of the environment. In particular, he added that the'one health' approach should be considered when making decisions in all areas related to global health. "The better future depends on the current choices made by governments, businesses and people around the world," said Lambertney. "World leaders must make quick decisions to transform their relationship with nature."

Author: Chris van Mersbergen  In: De Stentor (Open in Chrome for translation)

“What particularly concerns him besides corona: the phenomenon of one health , in which human health is not regarded as something separate, but in connection with the animal world and the rest of the planet. "We're making a bit of a mess of it," says Osterhaus. “If you look at our travel behavior, our consumption pattern. Man does so much damage to the world. We are changing the climate, losing a lot of animal species. ”We can't go on like this, says Osterhaus. In the meantime, he has to discuss at Op1 's main table with people who need to go on holiday by plane again, to Greece or Ibiza,  and whether that is possible  if you cannot keep a distance of 1.5 meters. “Changing behavior is so difficult. But we will have to. ”

Author: Staff Reporter GuwahatiI  In: The Assam Tribune Online

“The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates that systemic changes must be made to address the environmental drivers of pandemics. WWF is advocating a ‘One Health’ approach linking the health of people, animals and our shared environment and wants this to be included in decision-making on wildlife and land use change. This should also be incorporated within all business and financing decisions, particularly related to global health.”

Author: SciDev.Net  In: Medical Xpress

“Robinson agrees human activity is a major driver of the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases, but says the best way to address this is through systemic approaches and policy responses grounded in proper understanding of the connections between human, animal and planetary health—an approach known as One Health. UNEP and the International Livestock Research Institute will release their 'Preventing the Next Pandemic' assessment next month. It will recommend addressing knowledge gaps to break chains of transmission and tackle the drivers of disease.”

Author: Editorial Board  In: Gazzetta di Milano (Open in Chrome for translation)

“It is not a question of retracing the dramatic chronicle of the epidemic, nor of attributing report cards or judgments to governors, ministers or assessors: the result is the result of choices made and perpetuated in various regional legislatures. It is necessary to take note of a serious deficiency that has become structural, which requires a real reconstruction of a health system capable of prevention, monitoring and local medicine. A system that, from a One Health perspective , prevents diseases from their origin, whether they are transmissible or not, by acting on people's behavior, for example as regards mobility and food choices. Because where there is a health system worthy of the name, health is not a private matter, but a common good. It is also necessary to remedy the too many inadequacies that emerged in a very serious way during the lockdown, starting with those affecting the school system, childcare services and facilities for disabilities: these are the fronts on which to invest public resources.”

In: Thair PBS News (Open in Chrome for translation)

“However, bats may be the number 1 disease nest. There are 2 ways of communicating with humans: People search for infection by invading the habitat. Wildlife trade and others In addition, the disease approached humans is the migration of these animals. Including climate change, pollution, and invasion of forests, making living And closer to humans, which we have to prevent when germs will approach us. "One world One health Both people and animals The information obtained will be exchanged at the international level. To study and plan to cope with emerging diseases "

Author: Karen Brulliard   In: the Washington Post

"Scientists and public health officials emphasize that humans are the overwhelming drivers of the coronavirus’s spread and that the chance of becoming sickened by infected animals appears to be minute. But researchers say the lab results and the small but growing number of cases in animals are reason for far more extensive study of how the virus can move between species. “We know that these viruses are capable of mutating,” said Peter Rabinowitz, a physician who directs the University of Washington Center for One Health Research, which is studying the virus in household pets. “There could be changes in the virus, and these human-animal transmission events could play more of a role in the future, and we have to be more vigilant.” "

In: Mundo Acuicola (Open in Chrome for translation)

“In order to continue learning about the development of Covid-19 in our country, the Guild Association of Veterinary Doctors linked to Aquaculture (Mevea Chile AG), is organizing for next Wednesday, June 24, the second discussion in a series that have designed; with which they seek to contribute to information about the pandemic. The guest this time will be the WHO representative in Chile, Dr. Fernando Leanes, who will have an open conversation about the progress of Covid-19 and how to continue facing this pandemic with the eyes of ONE HEALTH (One Health), this activity will be made through the Zoom platform.”

Author: Laprovincia.Es  In: La Provincia (Open in Chrome for translation)

“The veterinarian assures that this medicine, which can be used in a multitude of routes, including oral and intravenous, has many uses and recalls, in Simón's line, that this drug does not cure the virus, but due to its effect immunosuppressant, stops that "inflammatory pump" that triggers cytosines that can generate the coronavirus in severe cases."That Oxford had to come to reveal something that we knew for years ... This is how it goes," says Montoya, who assures that if a One Health approach with veterinary participation had been adopted from the beginning, the highest level for pandemic management , studies like this could have come sooner and saved lives.”

In: Animal’s Health Spain (open in Chrome for translation)

“There is an international movement called 'One Health' , which is health, in which what they say is that you have to collaborate between the different disciplines that work locally, nationally and globally seeking optimal health for people, animals and the environment ", has explained. The doctor regretted that there was a kind of "scotoma" (blind spot) for the veterinarian in the commission. " Veterinarians have been left out of this equation , I am not a veterinarian, I say this out of respect, but I know we have to collaborate," he insisted.”

In: Animal’s Health Spain (Open in Chrome for translation)

“Researchers from the Microbiology Una Salud group at the University of Burgos , led by veterinarian  David Rodríguez-Lázaro , together with  José María Eiros , from the Río Hortega Hospital, have carried out a genetic study of the SARS-CoV-2, and consider that it would be necessary to further investigate the role of animals in the transmission of the coronavirus and be prepared to implement contingency plans with a 'One Health' approach. At the moment, they point out that there is evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can infect cats, dogs and mink , and there are numerous studies demonstrating human-to-animal infection. Likewise, they point out that the nucleotide sequence of protein S isolated in domestic and human animals is identical, and several studies show that replication of the virus in cats is efficient.”

Author: Siobhan Dunphy  In: European Scientist.com

“According to the WWF, land conversion for agricultural activities is responsible for around 70 per cent of global biodiversity loss and half the loss of tree cover globally to date. The report also warns of “the risk of a new [animal-to-human] disease emerging in the future is higher than ever, with the potential to wreak havoc on health, economies and global security”. Earlier this year, the European Commission announced new legislation to curb the footprint of EU consumption on global deforestation. In response to the new coronavirus outbreak, believed to have originated from humans and spread to humans through so-called wet markets, on 24 February China introduced a comprehensive ban on the consumption of wild animals. Other governments must follow suit.”

Author: K.C. Deepika  In: The Hindu

“Listing out the challenges before India now, the paper says given the country’s “susceptibility to infectious diseases” and the link between environmental health, preventive health, and disease burden, what is needed is a “one health approach” to simultaneously address the health of humans and wildlife. This will also call for multi-sectoral intervention from decision-makers, implementers and academia, it says. The paper also calls for widespread access to hygiene and sanitation, decentralised and accessible healthcare, and immediate social protection for the urban poor.”

Author: World Bank  In: Relief Web 

“‘China is a high-risk area for emerging infectious diseases due to the combination of human population density, wildlife abundance, high levels of livestock production, land-use changes and habitat fragmentation. As one of the world’s largest consumers of human and animal antibiotics, China also carries high risk of antibiotic resistance. Improvements in China’s ability to prevent and be prepared for public health emergencies are of global interest,” said Martin Raiser, World Bank Country Director for China. Addressing the social, environmental and economic determinants of EID risks requires a multi-sectoral approach, which brings together responses from public health, agriculture and food, as well as the environment and wildlife sectors. To help implement such a multisectoral approach, the project will support piloting improvements in risk-based surveillance systems for EIDs and antibiotic use in the human health and animal health sectors, and promote data sharing across sectors to improve risk mapping, early warning systems and encourage proactive reporting.”

Podcast in Rai Play Radio (open in Chrome for translation)

Author: IANS  In: Outlook India

“The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates that systemic changes be made to address the environmental drivers of pandemics. The WWF advocates a ''One Health'' approach linking the health of people, animals and our shared environment and wants this to be included in decision-making on wildlife and land-use change. This should also be incorporated within all business and financing decisions, particularly related to global health.”

Author: Wildlife Conservation Society  In: News Wise

“A new study found that animals sampled in the wildlife-trade supply chain bound for human consumption had high proportions of coronaviruses, and that the proportion of positives significantly increases as animals travel from traders, to large markets, to restaurants. The study, which appears in the pre-print journal bioRxiv, is by a team of scientists from WCS, the Department of Animal Health of the Viet Nam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Viet Nam National University of Agriculture, EcoHealth Alliance, and One Health Institute of the University of California, Davis.”

Author: Muhammad Hamid Zaman  In: Project Syndicate

“Regulatory agencies, for their part, have either been hamstrung by limited resources, or have looked the other way while rules were persistently flouted. At times, local regulators have themselves contributed to the problem of zoonotic infections through kickbacks, negligence, and general incompetence. Siloed academic structures have limited the research into animal-human interactions, while the “One Health” concept linking human, animal, and environmental health has still not fully caught on. As we emerge from COVID-19 and try to prepare better for future pandemics, we cannot rely solely on improving track-and-trace systems, or ensuring that our stockpiles of ventilators and personal protective equipment are sufficient.”

Author: Nazarul Islam  In: New Age Bangladesh 

“Urban health has now emerged as a key issue in managing cities. While scientists may be grappling to find a new vaccine for the present virus, we are really not sure when a new pandemic may break out. Our health system must be equipped to deal with new types of diseases from hitherto unknown sources. A new concept being developed is called ‘one health’, which aims to integrate the management of the health of wildlife, livestock and humans that has been advocated by the One Health Institute at the University of California, Davis. It seeks to regularly check for possible infection from livestock and wild animals that are farmed and traded and high human risk populations. We may consider adopting such an approach.”

Author: Fran Smith   In: National Geographic, Science, Coronavirus Coverage

"The risk of zoonotic diseases—infections transmitted from animals to humans—is increasing as we muscle in on the wild. The more we raze habitat for farmland and cities, hunt and trade wildlife, vacation in remote forests, and hike through once-inaccessible caves, the greater the chances of “spillover,” as scientists call it when a virus vaults from a species it doesn’t harm into one it does, such as ours……………..The federal government has made minuscule investments in PREDICT and Stop Spillover, compared to the $3 trillion that Congress authorized in March and April for COVID-19 response and economic relief, with no end in sight to the pandemic. But it’s hard to drum up public interest in or major funding for invisible threats before they explode into crisis."

Author: Chantal Allam  In: WRAL Tech Wire

“‘If COVID-19 has done anything, it’s taught us we live in a ‘One Health’ world,” added AAD’s founder and chief scientific officer Rudy Rodriguez, who started the company in 2001. “We know our livestock technology can make a difference by precisely targeting antibiotic use, and we hope to make a difference with the world’s fastest, most rugged white blood cell differential.’”

Author: SciDev.net  In: Medical Xpress

“As a result of the UK investment in rigorous, interdisciplinary 'One Health' science, a global network of scientists is now better placed to work on today's coronavirus pandemic. One Health recognises that human, animal and environmental health are inter-connected. A collaborative, interdisciplinary and integrated approach to zoonoses research, policy and management is needed.”

Author: GM Ziegler, F Ubertini, P Mathieson, J Niemelä, W Nowak, L Sels  In: The Scotsman 

“Our joint research focuses on areas vital for improving resilience and sustainability of societies. ‘One Health’, the newest addition to our focus areas, promotes networked thinking about health to improve disease detection, prevention and treatment. As proven by the Covid-19 pandemic, health challenges that stem from the complex interaction between humans, animals, plants and ecosystems call for a review of existing concepts and methods. Tighter collaboration across sectors and disciplines – life sciences, public health and social sciences – is at the heart of One Health.”

Author: Fran Smith  In: National Geographic  

“The knowledge also can jumpstart the development of tests and treatments when new viruses strike—or, better yet, before, said Jonna Mazet, who was global director of PREDICT for 10 years and now runs the One Health Institute at the University of California, Davis. “If we study them all, the ones that make us sick and the ones that don’t, and if we know what makes a virus jump from species to species, we can greatly improve our diagnostics and greatly improve our risk ranking so we can start to target studies for therapeutics and maybe even a vaccine,” she said.”

Author: Saba Sinai  In: Open Forum.com Australia

“As the rapid, international travel-facilitated spread of COVID-19 has so far demonstrated, the world is today inextricably linked in ways it has not been before. A disease outbreak in one corner of the world threatens the health of millions and the resulting economic shocks jeopardise the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of others. Given the global reach and influence of these zoonotic diseases, One Health approaches must be coupled with cooperation between national and subnational governments together with international institutions like the World Health Organisation, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.”

Author: Tarik Fernandes  In: Deviante.com

Podcast in Portuguese, Open in Chrome for English description

In: Homeland Security Today 

“ZODIAC aims to help veterinary and public health officials identify these diseases before they spread. “We have seen an increase in the number of zoonotic epidemics in the last decades: first Ebola, then Zika, and now COVID-19. It’s important to monitor what is in the animal kingdom – both wildlife and livestock – and to act quickly on those findings before the pathogens jump to humans,” Viljoen said. Following the One Health concept for a multidisciplinary collaborative approach between human and animal health authorities and specialists, ZODIAC will benefit from the joint FAO/IAEA laboratories and from partners such as the World Health Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health.”

Author: Eric Fèvre & Naomi Marks  In: Scie Dev Net

“Many scientists working on diseases affecting people in developing countries and their animals are refocusing part of their work on COVID-19. The result is that while the pandemic response is receiving a welcome boost, the prospect for research into lesser-known diseases of poor people in poor countries is less certain. Most diseases that transmit from animals to humans (zoonoses) are not of the headline-grabbing, world-stopping variety. They are an everyday reality for millions of people whose lives are quietly blighted or prematurely ended by diseases transmitted through farming and food systems.”

Author: Partner Content  In: Grocott’s Mail

“UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres has joined a growing chorus for leaders to use the pandemic recovery to move towards a greener future and prevent the unfolding global environmental crisis, while the authors of the most comprehensive planetary health check ever undertaken contend that only stimulus packages that offer incentives for more sustainable and nature-positive activities must be deployed, and that this must co-occur with the strengthening and enforcement of environmental regulations. In addition they motivate for a ‘one health’ approach on the basis of the intimate connections between the health of people, livestock, wildlife and the environment.”

Author: Dan Ashe & John E. Scanlon  In: The Scientific American

“There is a clear need to take a One Health approach to wildlife trade. A viable legal framework already exists. To avert the next wildlife-related pandemic, we must expand efforts to stop illegal wildlife trade and trade that poses a health risk, as well as to close wildlife markets when they threaten human and animal health. The world could move swiftly to amend CITES to include a broader health-related mandate and increase collaboration with WHO, OIE and FAO. The world, its wildlife, its people, and its economy may depend on it.”

Author: Meghna Krishnadas  In: The Wire Science 

“In sum, the One Health framework may disrupt existing intellectual, disciplinary and administrative silos. Research questions, problems, and solutions will have to transcend their subject-specific dimensions. Human health will have to be seen as an emergent property of a complex system of interactions – the whole being much more than the sum of its parts. We have much to know about the links between ecosystem change, disease regulation and human well-being. COVID-19 served us a reminder that human and nonhuman health can’t be separated. To think of systems as a whole will not be easy. But it’s a challenge that deserves our best shot.”

Author: ANSA Editorial Staff  In: ANSA Italy (Open in Chrome for translation)

“‘In the last 10 years - reads - the Park Authority has been able to put into practice the principles of ecological connections by carrying out biodiversity protection actions and projects that have involved the network of protected areas of the central Apennines….He "contributed to the creation of an exportable management model, able to mitigate the consequences of biodiversity loss with the experience of 'Conservation Medicine', but also to support the prevention of zoonoses and the health of ecosystems, interpreting the approach 'One Health' promoted by the World Health Organization, which calls for programs, policies and research in synergy between different sectors to prevent pandemics and achieve better results for public health ‘“

Author: Jamaal S. Abdul-Alim  In: The Conversation

“We’ve also seen a number of rapid reports urging us to learn from this pandemic and past epidemics to protect us from future events – especially by taking an holistic “One Health” approach. This brings together expertise across human health, animal health and the environment. For instance, last month the Lancet One Health Commission called for more transdisciplinary collaboration to solve complex health challenges. Similarly, the World Wide Fund for Nature’s March 2020 report on The Loss of Nature and Rise of Pandemics highlighted the likely animal origin of COVID-19, and how intimately connected the health of humans is to animal and environmental health.”

In: Beijing Sina News (Open in Chrome for translation)

“Lu Jiahai, a professor at the School of Public Health of Sun Yat-sen University and director of the One Health Research Center, told reporters in the 21st Century Business Herald that judging from the experience and lessons of multiple epidemic situations, to change the passive situation of epidemic prevention, the epidemic prevention point must be moved forward. The target is the animal practitioners, including those who sell animals, raise animals, trade animals, veterinary professionals, farmers and herdsmen are all high-risk groups. If you take the initiative to strengthen their detection, you can find out early that they are sentinel crowds.”

Author: Francesco Ubertini  In: Quatidiano.net (Open in Chrome for translation)

“Despite the recent need to focus each on their own territoryA Europa has helped us stay in touch in dealing with problems of a similar or equal nature. Our joint research focuses on some vital areas for improving resilience and sustainability within society. One Health , the youngest addition to our Focus Areas, promotes networked thinking about health to improve disease detection, prevention and treatment. As demonstrated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the health challenges that arise from the complex interaction between humans, animals, plants and ecosystems require a review of existing concepts and methods. Close collaboration between sectors and disciplines is at the heart of OneHealth.”

Author: Gary S. May & David A. Lubarsky  In: UC Davis.edu

“UC Davis Health isn’t working alone. Our entire campus community is rallying to collaborate on solutions and provide support for the COVID-19 response. UC Davis has 24 active COVID-19 studies and we’re pursuing possible treatments on many fronts. They include plasma transfusions from blood donors who recovered from the virus used in an effort to boost another patient’s ability to neutralize the virus. Our schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases are collaborating in the hopes of making breakthroughs in vaccines and diagnostic testing. In the bigger picture, our One Health program continues to work on issues related to climate change, population growth, land use and pandemics.”

Author: David W Graham & Peter Collignon  In: Independent.com

“Here we focus on antibiotic resistant bacteria, but drug resistance also occurs in types of other micro-organisms – such as resistance in pathogenic viruses, fungi, and protozoa (called antimicrobial resistance or AMR). This means that our ability to treat all sorts of infectious disease is increasingly hampered by resistance, potentially including coronaviruses like Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19...Locally driven national action plans are therefore essential – which the new WHO/FAO/OIE guidance strongly recommends. In some places, actions might focus on healthcare systems; whereas, in many places, promoting cleaner water and safer food also is critical It is clear we must use a holistic approach (what is now called “One Health“) to reduce the spread of resistance across people, animals, and the environment. But how do we do this in a world that is so unequal? It is now accepted that clean water is a human right embedded in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

Author: News Agency of Nigeria  In: Pulse Nigeria

“Ihekweazu said that the NCDC was being held accountable for failures across the various tiers of governments and took unnecessary responsibility for things that normally was the responsibility of states and local government areas. According to him, the bill should recognise the one health strategy we have adopted in Nigeria to promote further integration and coordination across all levels of government, especially with the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment. “In order for the NCDC to effectively carry out its responsibilities, it is pertinent for a legal framework on managing infectious diseases, that specifically empowers the NCDC to obtain the relevant data from the states. “The management of an outbreak has to be quick, therefore the access to funds required for NCDC to maintain laboratories, procure equipment, development and disseminate information is critical.”

YouTube Video hosted by Adtalem

In the U.S., the One Health Act of 2019 – a bipartisan bill introduced to Congress in 2019 – helps the federal government prepare for, prevent and respond to zoonotic disease outbreaks by bringing together healthcare professionals and leaders in human health, animal health and environmental health. In this video, Adtalem’s Chairman and CEO Lisa Wardell is joined by Rep. Kurt Shrader and Rep. Ted Yoho, as well as Dr. Sean Callanan, Dean of Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM), and Dr. Andrew Maccabe, CEO, Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, to discuss the importance of this legislation.

Author: John Colmey  In: Landscape News

“We must fundamentally change the way we produce, consume and live, and the Landscape Approach is one of the tools that can help us ‘build back better’ from the ground up. The theory and practice, which is sweeping across the globe, is to balance competing land use demands such as urbanization, farming and biodiversity conservation in a way that is best for people and the environment they depend on. It means creating solutions adapted to local contexts and that are sustainable on the environmental, economic and social fronts –and many of us see it as the best chance of advancing the ‘One Planet, One Health’ notion. It may be our last chance.”

Author: Krishna Ramanujan  In: Cornell Chronicle

“‘One Health” is a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that aims to achieve optimal health outcomes by recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants and their shared environment. In short, it’s the idea that we’re all in this together. “One Health is a way of reminding all of us of our place within the whole,” said Cornell Provost Michael Kotlikoff in a video introduction to a panel discussion on the One Health philosophy at Cornell....“The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the great need for an interdisciplinary approach,” Warnick said, “which is offered by the profession of public health and also the value of a One Health perspective.’”

Author: R. Scott Nolen  In: American Veterinary Medical Association

“Dr. Torchetti was speaking during a May 6 Zoonoses and One Health Update phone call with representatives of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Public Health Service, and USDA. She highlighted the preparedness of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which comprises 60 laboratories in 42 states. Twenty-seven of the facilities are capable of testing for SARS-CoV-2 in animals. Of those, seven are certified to also test human samples for the virus. “Together, these labs have the capacity to provide more than 12,000 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests within 24 hours,” Dr. Torchetti said.”

Author: Saskia V. Popescu  In: Infection Control Today

“If a patient with COVID-19 is wanting to have their feline brought in to visit, efforts should be made to communicate risk to the cat and perhaps set up a virtual call so they can interact. While these may seem like unlikely situations or something we won’t have to think about, the existing literature shows that there is a risk for humans to pass SARS-CoV-2 to domestic cats. More research is necessary to understand the zoonotic transmission and One Health dynamics of these infections.”

Author:  Marianne Gadeberg   In: International Livestock Research Institute   ILRI.org/News

“Asked about their top take-aways, attendees provided a wide range of reflections that included the complexity as well as importance of implementing One Health; how intensive agriculture is part of the problem, but also the solution; how trying to eliminate the source of disease—such as bat colonies—might actually encourage greater spread of disease; how multi-disciplinary and multi-sector collaboration at multiple levels is essential; and how greater communication between ecologists, human health scientists, animal health scientists and local community members is of utmost importance.”

Author: Aung Naing Oo  In: Agence Francaise De Developpement

“Though expanding, One Health is still in its infancy in operational terms. According to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health, about a hundred organizations were working on projects using at least two of the One Health components in Africa, Asia, and Europe at the end of 2017. “The concept will grow in importance and become more concrete in the years to come,” says Patrick Dauby. “The current health crisis sheds new light on the urgent need to design public policies that incorporate the One Health components.’”

Author: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)  In: Forests in the News (Open in Chrome for translation)

"”Human activities are behind the majority of new zoonoses,’ said Doreen Robinson, head of wildlife for UN Environment (UNEP)...’If we tackle these causes, which mostly have to do with protecting the environment, we will also improve people's well-being,’ said Robinson...UNEP Ecosystem Division Director Susan Gardner highlighted the need to strengthen information and education campaigns at all levels, among other reasons, so that children are ‘literate’ in environmental matters, consumers can make good choices in matters of food and the countries establish policies with the appropriate incentives to promote human, animal and environmental health.”

Author: None  In: North Queensland Register (First appeared in Queensland Country Life)

“COVID-19 should be treated as a wakeup call to break down the silos of agriculture, health and the environment to focus more on the risk of future pandemics. This was the message of two former senior politicians - John Anderson and Craig Emerson - who now sit on the board of the Crawford Fund, an NGO that engages Australians to train developing country scientists and farmers to improve food and nutrition security...Mr Anderson said the so-called 'One Health' approach was warranted, since it appeared COVID-19 and SARS came from animals being in close contact with humans in food chains, such as wet markets. He explained in an opinion piece written with Dr Emerson and the Crawford Fund's chief executive officer, Dr Colin Chartres, that with an increasing human footprint, the risk of future pandemics due to diseases jumping across the species barrier similarly increased.”

Author: Nazarul Islam  In: Dhaka Tribune 

“A new concept being developed is called “One Health” -- which aims to integrate the management of the health of wildlife, livestock, and humans -- has been advocated by the One Health Institute at the University of California, Davis. It seeks to regularly check for possible infections from livestock and wild animals that are farmed and traded and high human risk populations. We may consider adopting such an approach.”

Author: Ali Pattillo  In: Inverse.com

“Humans have wiped out 60 percent of the world’s wildlife in the past four decades, according to the World Wildlife Fund’s 2018 Living Planet report. In turn, wild animals are being pushed into areas dense with humans. “Every time we take away habitat, we have to ask ourselves: ‘Where are those wild animals going that are potential carriers of these organisms?’” Castellan asks. Combating zoonotic diseases requires a unified “one health” approach that considers human and animal needs, experts say. Wildlife experts, agricultural workers, veterinarians, ecologists, health workers, and policymakers all play a role. "You cannot divorce the relationship between humans and animals," George explains. What you can do is collect data, build preparedness, and strengthen prevention efforts to identify and contain disease outbreaks.”

Author: Sara Farley & Sara Scherr  In: World Economic Forum 

“Though still being investigated, COVID-19 likely originated in wild animals sold in open food markets. The virus easily jumped to humans because farmers had cleared and settled large areas of natural habitat, increasing interactions of wildlife with people, including as food…...The food systems of tomorrow must embrace the One Health vision and advance positive interactions between human health, livestock health, wildlife health and ecosystem health. This approach can minimize the spread of disease, ensure adequate water for crop irrigation, reduce destructive flooding and wildfires, and protect farmlands from intense climate events, while also sustaining wild biodiversity and essential forest, grassland and wetland habitats”

In: Reflief Web

“At the same time, we cannot lose sight of the origins of the crisis, as it is likely that another such pandemic could emerge in the years to come. What many of the recent viruses that have emerged (e.g. HIV, SARS, Ebola, H1N1, COVID-19) have in common is their likely origin in wild animals. The combination of the human population increasing from 1 billion to 7.5 billion in the past 200 years, coupled with the need to feed this growing population has strained the natural environment and increased interactions at the human-livestock-wildlife nexus. Moreover, the trade and consumption of wildlife for food or traditional medicine has increased wildlife-human contact. As such, a coordinated One Health Approach, linking specialists in animal, human and environmental health, should be adopted, placing resilience, nutrition, and poverty reduction at the center of the food system.”

Authors: David Graham and Peter Collignon  In: The Conversation

“It is clear we must use a holistic approach (what is now called “One Health”) to reduce the spread of resistance across people, animals, and the environment...Antibiotic resistance will also impact on the fight against COVID-19. As an example, secondary bacterial infections are common in seriously ill patients with COVID-19, especially when admitted to an ICU. So if such pathogens are resistant to critical antibiotic therapies, they will not work and result in higher death rates.”

Author: Bharat Dogra  In: The Statesman

“The statement says, ‘Nature has once again reminded us of our tenuous situation in the wider universe. It is high time that humankind takes note of the warning signals and undertakes midcourse corrections urgently and now.

The “One World One Health” approach should be central in ensuring optimal harmony amongst all humans and animals of the world based on principle of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (The entire world is one family). Being respectful and mindful of all animate and inanimate beings of this planet is the way forward in the post-Covid-19 world.’”

Author: Riau Green  In: Riau Green

“Scientific research shows that the highly contagious corona virus that causes COVID-19 is most likely transmitted to humans from its reservoir host, horseshoe bats, through other intermediate host species, possibly pangolin. "We have ignored warnings for years that the wildlife market is a source of spread of disease, but trade continues with unclear regulations. Unfortunately, it is easier to maintain the status quo than to act to protect global health," protested Lisa Genasci, CEO of ADM Capital Foundation….CITES does not include animal or community health criteria in its decision making. A One Health approach is needed for wildlife trade if we want to minimize the risk of disease transmission from wild animal populations to humans again.”

Author: Cassandra Nania  In: Le Journal International (Open in Chrome for translation)

“As health ecologist Serge Morand says in an interview with France Inter, it is man by his mode of operation that has created ‘new ecological conditions conducive to epidemics’. Isn't it ironic that a species threatened with extinction because of Man is the reason for a health crisis which has upset our way of life and killed so many of our fellow men? We need to be fully aware that our health is linked to the ecosystem and to species.”

Author: A Ravindra  In: Deccan Herald

“A new concept called ‘One Health’ which aims to integrate the management of the health of wildlife, livestock and humans has been advocated by the One Health Institute at the University of California, Davis. It seeks to regularly check for possible infections from livestock and wild animals that are farmed and traded and high human risk populations.”

Author: Urban  In: Urban Fusions France

“The final count of SAR-CoV-2 remains to be determined, but the pandemic has already stopped the global economy, thrown millions of people out of work, killed hundreds of thousands of people and cost billions of dollars to national governments in the world…. Zoonoses are particularly complex because they cut across multiple sectors - environment, agriculture and health - which are often compartmentalized from one another. Dr. Reid says his dream project would bring together researchers with knowledge in several fields, including human and animal medicine, ecology, sociology, microbiology and those studying the transmission of pathogens in humans , wildlife and livestock. It is an idea sometimes described as a "One Health" perspective.”

Author: El Correo Gallego  In: El Correo Gallego

“In his opinion, "the most effective way to guarantee public health involves resorting to a global approach that integrates all possible disciplines and guarantees collaboration between them." "This would make it possible to make an intelligent and coordinated use of the accumulated experience and knowledge of all the scientific and health sectors with the same purpose: to protect human health," says the professional, adding that, "this multidisciplinary approach cannot be absent the figure of the veterinarian, a professional of the first order in the protection of human health through the treatment and prophylaxis of zoonotic diseases, that is, those transmissible between humans and animals. ” Thus, in this context, the FAO Director General has asked States to incorporate veterinarians, as specialists in disease prevention and control, into their work teams against covid-19, applying the One Health concept. Countries such as Germany have already implemented it, incorporating veterinarian Dr. Lothar Wieler as the main person in charge of fighting covid-19.”

Author: Kadambari Deshpande  In: The Print 

“Finally, imbibing a culture of constructive management and safety precautions by people sharing space with bats is essential. The globally recognised One Health framework’s objective is to harmonise human health and wellbeing with bat conservation by identifying and avoiding disease transmission pathways.”

Author: Gunter M. Ziegler, Francesco Ubertini, Peter Mathieson, Jari Niemela, Wojciech Nowak, Luc Sels, Joaquin Goyache Goni, Georges Haddad  In: El Diario

“Our joint research focuses on vital areas to improve the resilience and sustainability of societies. One Health , "One Health," the newest addition to our work areas, promotes health thinking online to improve disease detection, prevention and treatment. As the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates, the health challenges that arise from the complex interaction between humans, animals, plants, and ecosystems require a review of the concepts and methods that we know. Closer collaboration across all sectors and disciplines (life science, public health, and social science) is at the heart of One Health.”

Author: Luciana Polli  In: ND Mais (Open in Chrome for translation)

“The pandemic has relentlessly revealed the degree of interdependence between human health and the health of the planet. The expression 'One Health'...has never been more eloquent to convince us that, to guarantee the health of humanity, it is necessary to ensure the health of the planet...The great irony of all this is to see that the pandemic threatens economic activity itself, and that the recession may bring with it the pressing risk of easing environmental regulations. Deluded by the expectation of a rapid restoration of 'old' normality and consumption, this would certainly mean the irreversible loosening of environmental protection policies. There is no question about the undeniable importance of the economy for human survival and for overcoming the epidemic itself. But Covid-19 points out to us the fundamental nature of observing the laws of nature and the danger of making environmental regulations more flexible. Without a balanced environment, there is no water or health; there is no industrial, agricultural or commercial activity. Anyway, everything that we humans consider essential becomes unviable.”

Author: José Miguel Jaque  In: La Tercara (Open in Chrome for translation)

“‘We give a lot to that round and something we can learn is that we must work together. Now, I'm not saying it's easy, not at all. But these efforts must be made...“One health”... is the idea... that human health, animal and plant and ecosystem is a unique, holistic set...If we take this more comprehensive concept, we can reach a less damaging globalization. We have to understand that if Earth's health is not healthy, it is impossible for our health to be good. It is something that is always said, but now it has become too evident.”

Author: None  In: Lefaso.net (Open in Chrome for translation)

“Thus, there is the need to strengthen intersectoral collaboration for better management of this crisis through the One Health approach. For the actors of the United Nations, the engagement of journalists will reinforce the messages of the Ministry of Health. Hence this need to combine efforts to overcome this pandemic.”

Interview With: Julián Garde  In: El Diario (Open in Chrome for translation)

“I have to show my sadness as a veterinarian because, as a professional and in terms of research, we have not been considered. We can contribute a lot to solving this problem within today's global concept of One Health. Many of the diseases that are affecting us in recent years are shared with animals.”

Author: Michael Dulaney  In: ABC News Austrailia

“Zoonotic diseases are particularly complex because they overlap multiple sectors — environment, agriculture, and health — that are often siloed from one another. Dr Reid says his dream project would bring together researchers with knowledge of across multiple fields, including from human and animal medicine, ecology, sociology, microbiology and those who study the transmission of pathogens in humans, wildlife, and livestock. It's an idea sometimes described as a "One Health" perspective. "The chances of getting that [project] funded in Australia are nil," Dr Reid says. From this perspective, the emergence of this pandemic reveals how connected human societies are to animals and the natural world. Like climate change, it is another reminder that, in a fundamental way, the health of human societies is directly linked with the health of the planet.”

Author: Martin Kugler  In: Die Presse (Open in Chrome for translation)

“We have to face some truths: There will always be epidemics with new pathogens, and their cause can always be found in an interaction between human health, animal health and the environment. The only correct answer to this question was formulated a decade ago: Under the catchphrase ‘One Health’, medicine, veterinary medicine and ecology should no longer be considered separately, but rather viewed and researched together. The hope behind this is that we can then do more preventive work - and not, as is the case today, only react to fatal developments. Sounds obvious, but it's not that easy in practice. Because "One Health" requires interdisciplinary cooperation between different disciplines, which are also located at different universities. Softening this strict separation is an imperative of the hour.”

Author: Héctor Castañón  In: Explica

“One Health...invites us to understand that our health and the health of the planet are not separate things. The health of rivers, of the entire hydrological cycle, of forests, ecosystems, soil, oceans and air, is a continuum and interdependent part of human health...Today there is sufficient evidence to affirm that deforestation can lead to the spread of viruses in humans. Cities, settlements and cultivation and livestock areas increasingly come into contact with animals that were previously contained in natural habitats. Although it is not yet known exactly how the virus that causes COVID-19 got to humans, it is very likely that it was caused by bats displaced from their natural habitat somewhere in China.”

Author: None  In: Caretas (Open in Chrome for translation)

"’There is an enormous natural diversity of these coronaviruses,’" Zambrana warned. In the mentioned area of ​​the Asian giant there are not only large numbers of bats, but also a high density of human population and close contact between people and animals. The authors called for surveillance programs to find coronaviruses in bat populations located in southern China, but also in neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. Despite this discovery, Zambrana agreed with a large number of scientists, asking not to blame or harm the species. ‘The bats are not to blame. They are fantastic for ecosystems’, he explained.”

Author: Lena Kaatz  In: Agrardebatten Blog (Open in Chrome for translation)

“The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 only confirms what we have already known for a long time: We are connected to the environment and living things on earth, whether we have direct contact with them or not. In order to be able to better deal with possible problems that arise from such interactions, cooperation between different areas of competence is required. This principle is called One Health and is used at the University of Melbourne , among othersalready used in research. This is where experts from human medicine, veterinary medicine, environmental sciences and the public come together to exchange ideas and, if necessary, share resources in order to find a way out of dangerous situations as quickly as possible - just like now with the "corona virus". In the past, outbreaks of SARS-CoV (2003) and MERS (2012) laid the basis for such collaborations.”

Author: Marine Lamoureux  In: Usbek & Rica (Open in Chrome for translation)

“At the heart of these approaches is an avant-garde concept, developed in 2008 by the WHO: "  One Health  ", according to which human health can no longer be thought in isolation, but must be related to animal health and the environment. Better than another, the Covid-19 crisis has shown it: it is a "zoonosis" , a disease of vertebrate animals transmissible to humans, which undoubtedly has its origin in the bald- mouse (with pangolin as an intermediate host). Before her, the “Mers” syndrome in the Middle East had been transmitted to humans by dromedary; and the SARS of 2003, in China, by the civet. About two-thirds of emerging diseases are zoonoses.”

"Building back better: taking a One Health approach for healthy landscapes people, animals and wildlife " , hosted by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Author: Balram Bhargava  In: The Indian Express

“These trials are steps in the right direction. But to make India a global leader, there should be concerted efforts to activate the triple-helix model of innovation that involves intensifying collaboration between research institutes, industry, and the government. We need to approach research and innovation from the bottom-up — this means increasing research in biotechnology, medical innovation, and public health at the university level. The ICMR is in the process of setting up the National Institute of One Health to study zoonotic diseases, enabled by the Rs 20-lakh-crore package recently announced by the government. But more work needs to be done. One lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is that we need more than one research institute to study zoonotic diseases.”

Author: Michael Francis    In:  The Telegraph

It is thanks to work in animal health and veterinary science that we know first of all that coronavirus vaccines are achievable…………… Almost as soon as the novel coronavirus outbreak emerged, the word “zoonotic” entered the lexicon…………. But for all the interest in the pandemic’s animal origins, the global response has largely overlooked the fact that animal medicine might also play a role in developing the sought-after vaccine…… It is thanks to work in animal health and veterinary science that we know first of all that coronavirus vaccines are achievable.

Because of their unique expertise, veterinary surgeons play critical roles at the centre of the Venn diagram of human, animal and environmental health.

Author: 1 News TVNZ Breakfast  In: 1 News TVNZ 

“The Covid-19 pandemic, just like SARS and Bird Flu, is a reminder of how closely connected the health of people is to the health of animals in our shared environment. According to the Centre for Disease Control, 75 per cent of the world's new diseases in people come from animals. Dr Joanna McKenzie is the coordinator for Massey University's One Health Capacity programme. A long time before Covid-19, the programme had been training vets and doctors in developing countries to help them detect, investigate and respond to new diseases and build relationships within governments so that robust plans are in place to react quickly to a virus outbreak.”

Author: Michael Fox  In: Tulsa World

“Changing our travel and dietary habits (switching to more plant-based, home-prepared, unprocessed whole foods) are positive consequences of this pandemic. If these trends continue, rather than returning to the status quo, much agricultural land currently used to produce GMO commodity crops like corn and soybeans to feed factory-farmed animals could be recommissioned to produce organically certified foods for human consumption. And millions of acres of “carbon sink” wetlands, forests and grasslands could be restored. This will improve water quality and help temper droughts and floods. A final thought on the topic: “There is always a silver lining in every cloud, and for COVID-19, I think it just might be a quantum leap for the One Health philosophy.” — Craig N. Carter, DVM, MS, Ph.D.; professor of epidemiology in the Department of Veterinary Science, University of Kentucky”

Author: Helle Solvang  In: Randers Amtsavis 

“The corona crisis is the butterfly effect cut into cardboard for us. But it is not an enemy that must be fought, but a new understanding of nature, new forms of cultivation and a completely different relationship to consumption that we must wake up to. Statens Serum Institut is part of the interdisciplinary global network One Health, which is based on our health and environmental protection being linked. The website states that “there are also more and more people who put One Health in relation to a larger agenda: If we are to stay healthy and healthy in the broad sense, we must protect the planet we live on and set boundaries. for growth. This is called Planetary Health."’

Author: Nathan Fioritti  In: Pursuit- The University of Melbourne

““There may be even greater consequences if scientists and policymakers do not have a holistic outlook that takes into account human, animal and plant health, and the environment.” “We’d be well advised to understand these diseases, what the ecosystem drivers of their emergence or re-emergence are, where they are most likely to come from, how they are transmitted and how they can be prevented,” says Professor Fazakerley. “The more that I learn in this field, the more I realise that all of the systems on our planet are interconnected and we don’t necessarily understand how all those links work,” says Dr Campbell”

In: Traffic.org

“"One Health" is an approach to designing and implementing programmes, policies, legislation and research in which multiple sectors communicate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes across sectors. Efforts by just one sector cannot prevent or eliminate the problem and, a well-coordinated approach in humans and trade in animals is required to contain future outbreaks. Information on viruses circulating in animals is crucial to the selection of viruses for human vaccines for potential spillover pandemics. This approach can only work with the collaboration of many professionals with a range of expertise who are active in different sectors, such as public health, animal health, plant health, wildlife management, economic development, wildlife use and trade, nature conservation, environmental protection and climate change. This approach needs to be adopted at the national, regional and international levels in order to maximise cooperation, synergies and sharing information and best practices.”

Author: Zelalem H. Mekuria & Filimon M. Halie  In: Addis Standard

“SARS-CoV-2 has already redefined the scope of existing health response systems, and the new motto is a viral threat anywhere is a threat elsewhere, hence a proactive preparation which involves rigorous surveillance of RNA viruses at the human, animal, and environmental interfaces and investments towards strategies/technologies to develop quick and efficacious next-generation vaccines and therapeutics should be at the center of global health priorities.”

Author: Ana Martínez  In: EFE Verde (Open in Chrome for translation)

“We must become aware that health is global, of the ‘One-health’ concept, which integrates human health, animal health and environmental health and that if the balance between them disappears, that can have dramatic consequences. We are facing a major crisis, but we are also faced with the opportunity to do better in the future.”

Author: Michelle Wong  In: The California Aggie

“One of the things that we focus on is letting people know how much interdisciplinary collaboration happens between researchers who are working in totally different fields who normally wouldn’t work together,” Johnson said. “One of the really great things about how UC Davis is able to get people to collaborate is that […] it can lead to really exciting and novel approaches to solving problems.”

Author: John Bellamy Foster & Intan Suwandi  In: Monthly Review 

“Since communicable diseases, due to the unequal conditions of capitalist class society, fall heaviest on the working class and the poor, and on populations in the periphery, the system that generates such diseases in the pursuit of quantitative wealth can be charged, as Engels and the Chartists did in the nineteenth century, with social murder. As the revolutionary developments in epidemiology represented by One Health and Structural One Health have suggested, the etiology of the new pandemics can be traced to the overall problem of ecological destruction brought on by capitalism.”

Authors: Tracey McNamara and Ashley Arabasadi    In:  The Hill

“The lack of a species-neutral, “one health” approach to bio-surveillance virtually guarantees we will not detect unusual events in sentinel animal species before the disease has already spread into people. Instead, we humans become the sentinels, exposed to lurking unknown threats that won’t be detected until we end up in emergency rooms or the morgue.”

Author: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)  In: Phys.org

“The SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the current COVID-19 pandemic affecting the entire globe seems to have come about from a probable recombination of viruses from two different animal species, one of which is subject to illegal hunting or trade. So, as with numerous other emerging diseases that affect humans, this is a zoonosis, i.e. an infection of animal origin. In intertropical zones which are home to a wide concentration of biological diversity and where societies are still very vulnerable, some human populations are now faced with new health threats from wildlife. By cutting down trees to develop crop and livestock farming, those same communities come into contact with the microbial cycles found in large-scale forest biomes.”

2019-2020 AVMA / AAAS Science and Technology policy Fellow and veterinarian Deborah Thomson discusses how the One Health framework provides a holistic understanding of the coronavirus SARS CoV-2 and its related disease COVID-19.

Author: Simon Doherty  In: Health Europa

“Nevertheless, to properly understand and manage the risk factors associated with diseases like COVID-19, health authorities must treat the pandemic as part of a wider system, which includes animal, human and environmental health, or what we call ‘One Health’. For example, many achievements in improving public health in recent years have resulted from innovations in animal agriculture that protect farmers, food handlers and consumers as well as animals. These developments have included the preventative use of vaccines as well as measures designed to keep disease out of farms, or to contain them within the farm if a disease outbreak does occur.”

Author: Kendra Coulter    In:  The Conversation

“We have to start taking animals’ presence and well-being seriously. There are many important policies and paths worth considering; three are particularly salient.

1.       Stop exotic animal trade

2.       Confront the dangers of industrial animal agriculture head on

3.       Embrace the concept of One Health — the recognition that human, animal and environmental health are inextricably connected.

In education, health, law enforcement, food, care and every other sector, One Health should be at the heart of thoughtful, responsive and pro-active policy-making and practice. …The animals deserve better, and so does our species. A simple return to the status quo is not only unjust, it is dangerous.”

Author: Steve Osofsky    In:  The Hill

“The U.S. Agency for International Development has been investing in the fight against pandemics for more than 15 years. In fact, I worked on the first such project the government helped create in 2005, focused on H5N1 avian influenza, wherein we looked at the roles of wild birds versus poultry in the global spread of this zoonotic disease. There were important questions related to where and how one could intervene to stop the spread of this viral scourge, and we very much took a “One Health” approach, which recognizes that the health of people, wildlife and domestic animals are all inextricably linked and impacted by how well — or not — we steward environmental and socioeconomic policies…..As one of the veterinarians behind the One World, One Health movement launched in 2004, I cannot overstate how important I think it is that our approach to pandemic prevention be much more holistic, more ambitious and more focused on root causes than our foreign assistance programs have been to date….”

About the Proposed Bill

"In accordance with the ‘One Health’ approach – which emphasizes the interconnection of human, animal, and environmental health – the legislation directs the U.S. Department of State, USAID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to identify which species and practices in live wildlife markets are most likely to ignite a zoonotic disease outbreak and to leverage international diplomacy to close such markets. The President is also given authority to sanction nations that continue to harbor high-risk wildlife markets. Lastly, the bill directs agencies to coordinate their approach to zoonotic disease preparedness, minimize the human-wildlife interface by protecting ecosystems, and reduce demand among food insecure communities that currently depend on wildlife."

Author: Richard Seifman   In:  IMPAKTER

It is fair to say that One Health today is where nutrition was in the last century. Nutrition was in everyone’s rhetoric but not on anyone’s radar as their number one priority, Neither the health sector nor agriculture nor social welfare took up nutrition as their primary obligation. …..The same is now true with One Health.

Author:  Lynne Peeples    In: UNDARK Magazine

“About a decade ago, awareness of the interconnectedness of humans, other animals, and the environment began to ramp up — even reaching Hollywood. At the end of the 2011 film “Contagion” (which has enjoyed renewed popularity recently thanks to the pandemic), a flashback details the origins of the fictitious virus MEV-1, modeled after the real-life Nipah virus: A bulldozer clears a patch of trees and a displaced disease-carrying bat drops a chunk of banana into a pig farm. Viewers then watch a pig gobble up the fruit before being slaughtered and handled by a chef, who does not wash his hands before greeting Gwyneth Paltrow……………

“Historically, limited resources have been available for needed One Health activities.” ………“You can create One Health offices, but achieving any real coordination or integration is tough,” ……… “Each agency has its mandate, and it’s hard to pay attention to everything else.”....... the concept should also go further to include the social sciences. “If you want to control diseases, it’s the human behavior that you have to change or influence,”  Simply closing down live animal markets could backfire, for example. “As long as there is still a demand, they’ll find a way of trading this stuff and then you won’t even know how to find it.”

Podcast: Sci On the Fly   Interview with Dr. Deb Thomson

Understanding the science of viral transmission and pandemics is now critical, especially for younger generations. Dr. Deborah Thomson discusses how the One Health framework provides a holistic understanding of the coronavirus SARS CoV-2 and its related disease COVID-19. She also discusses how One Health informed her work as a veterinarian and how she now uses it to teach students around the world about COVID-19. Free lessons for ages 6-18+ about COVID-19 can be found at www.onehealthlessons.com.

Author:  Gus Fisher   In:  TRUTHOUT

Over a year before COVID-19 was first detected, biologists at the University of Warsaw published “Bats, Coronaviruses, and Deforestation,” a paper that links the rapid destruction of the natural habitats of bats to the spread of coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.

Podcast:  TheWorld.Org’s Kyle Vass interviews Tom Hughes    On: Public Radio International

In the last 1990s in Malaysia containing the Nipa Virus, a zoonotic disease that jumped from bats to pigs to people,  dessimated the Malaysian pork industry and cost its economy $550 Million. More than 100 people died. It could have been prevented through One Health prevention protocols.  If we want to have healthy people we have to have healthy environment, healthy livestock, we need to have healthy wildlife. We are all inter-connected.

Submitted by the Wildlife Conservation Society    In:  The Laotian Times

“Coronaviruses and other zoonotic viruses have always been, and will always be, present in wildlife. But the answer to preventing zoonotic disease spillover events is not to kill wildlife out of fear. The answer is to respect wildlife and their space, and to avoid participating in high-risk behaviors such as the selling and consumption of wildlife in markets,” said Dr. Emily Denstedt, a veterinarian for the WCS Lao PDR Health Program.

Video Interview of Dr.s Greg Gray and Steve Osofsky    On: ITV News by Video Producer Natalia Jorquera

“One Health, which is advocated by the World Health Organisation, is designed to implement policies and programmes where professionals with a range of expertise like vets, doctors and environmental scientists can join forces and share data to help avert another pandemic.”

National Geographic Newsletter, Multiple articles, Multiple Authors

“The authors issue a stark warning: Future pandemics will happen more frequently, will kill more people, and will cause greater economic damage unless we start recognizing the inextricable links between human health and the health of the planet, its ecosystems, and its nonhuman living creatures. This is not a radical concept. The framework of OneHealth, recognized by the CDC, the World Health Organization, and governments and organizations around the world, does just that.

The bottom line: When nature is sick, we’re sick.”

Amuasi JH, Walzer C, Heymann D, The Lancet, Vol 395, Issue 10236, May 16, 2020,

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31028-X

“Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not just a global pandemic caused by the zoonotic SARS-CoV-2 but represents a critical pivot point in modern times, joining only a few episodes in recorded history. The unique features of this world-changing event are its suspected origin at the human–environment–animal interface and its rapid explosion as a result of unprecedented levels of human interconnectivity, mobility, and global trade…..COVID-19 epitomises why One Health, which recognises the fundamental interconnectedness of humans, animals, and their shared environment, is key to ensuring the healthy and sustainable future of the planet.”

Author:  Jonathan Kolby   In: National Geographic

Pathogens passed from animals to humans aren’t the only cause for concern. Amphibian chytrid fungus, the aquatic fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, is the first disease known to infect hundreds of species simultaneously and drive many of them toward extinction. It’s so dangerous because it can jump between nearly any amphibian—a class with more than 8,000 species. It has already spread to remote protected areas around the world…….. Key to reducing the spread of pathogens is a “clean trade” program, in which private industry and government officials work together to implement safer strategies, according to Matthew Gray, associate director of the University of Tennessee Center for Wildlife Health, in Knoxville…..Gray says that clean trade could involve testing either before transport or at the border, so that animal health certificates could accompany wildlife—similar to what’s required for livestock.

Author: David Aronson   On:  International Livestock Research Institute Website - News

"The acclaimed Indian novelist Arundhati Roy has written that the ongoing tragedy of COVID-19 is a sort of global X-ray, exposing the weak or broken elements under the surface of the world’s economic and health systems. One of those elements, arguably, is a failure to bring enough financial and institutional resources to bear on One Health programs, which bring multiple disciplines together to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment."....

‘There has long been an intellectual consensus on the benefits of a One Health approach, but that consensus never led to a corresponding institutional response.’

Author: Laura Kahn    In:  Issues in Science and Technology

"So what can be done to prevent the next zoonotic pandemic?

Society’s approach to public health needs to proceed strategically, not reactively, if humans are to sustainably meet dietary needs for meat and other animal proteins....The One Health model provides a strategy. Researchers must examine the human, animal, and environmental components of zoonotic spillover events before they can effectively address them. The most profound way that humans interact with the environment is by eating it—in this case, in the form of animal protein. Although it’s unrealistic to expect the United States or other nations to become vegetarian or vegan, there are ways to reduce animal protein consumption."

Author: George Lueddeke   In: Policies for Equitable Access to Health

"Significant steps in this direction would be reversing decades of undervaluing and underfunding (5%: 95%ratios) public health measures at the expense of treatment and increasingly unaffordable cures. Extending the meaning and responsibilities of public health to embrace not only human health and well-being but also all species is another critical advance.  In this regard, bringing human and veterinary medicine more closely together (education, research, practice) would not only reduce costs but most importantly also lead to building our capacity for ensuring the sustainability of life on earth. Over 70% of all emerging diseases today are of animal [zoonotic] origin. Covid-19  is the most recent and likely one of the most devastating pandemics  in the past century, and  to save the world from itself,  global and national leaders – regardless of  political persuasion or ideological leanings – are urged to collaborate and adopt sustainability values and measures without delay."

Hosted by the International Livestock Research Institute

Author: Jose Louies  In: DaijiWorld.com

"Animals are no different when we say we are happiest when we are in our natural surroundings. A primate is happy when it is foraging for food with the family on treetops and surveying the sky for danger. That is their happy place….As a conservation action-oriented organization, working through multipronged strategies, one of which is to curb illegal wildlife trade, WTI additionally advocates One Health as the way forward for survival, where the health of the environment is linked to the health of animals and people, leading to a secure coexistence for all."

Authors: Peter M. Rabinowitz and Greg Gray    In:  Seattle Times

                 1. Fully investigate the animal origins of the COVID-19 outbreak.

                 2. Regulate and limit the sale and farming of wildlife species for food.

                 3. Take a One Health approach to food systems feeding the world. 

"Our approach to food systems is siloed. Professionals in agriculture, animal health, human health and the environment have long worked in parallel on issues related to food-production systems….. A new approach, called “One Health,” is a better way forward.   One Health considers the health linkages among humans, animals and their shared environments. The World Health Organization, the United Nations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many other entities have endorsed the One Health concept. We need to incorporate this interdisciplinary approach to feed the world’s human population and promote the health of all species without destroying the environment. This means teamwork among human health, animal health and environmental health scientists and others to devise sustainable solutions to our food-production needs."

Podcast @Cracking One Health    Interview with Dr. Juan Lubroth

This interview covers topics ranging from antimicrobial resistances, to waste management, wet market regulations and the role of Veterinarians during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It may be possible to quickly initiate a data collection strategy using in-place animal gatekeepers, such as zookeepers, veterinarians, kennel owners, feed lots, and military animal handlers. If provided a simple surveillance form, their detection of symptoms (lethargy, hyposmia, anosmia, and others) might be quickly reported to a central data collection site if one were created. Second, although current human COVID-19 disease is aligning around areas of population density and cluster events, it might be possible to overlay animal species density or veterinary reports that could signal some disease association in animals with COVID-19 patients. Unfortunately, although companion animals and zoo species have repeatedly served as sentinels for emerging infectious diseases, they do not currently fall under the jurisdiction of any federal agency and are not under surveillance.

I am Bio Podcast Interview with  Dr. Billy Karesh    Hosted by Jim Greenwood

There's a joke among ecological health scientists that if “you don’t believe one person can change the world, try eating an undercooked bat.” However, what EcoHealth Alliance’s Dr. William Karesh — a world-renowned expert on zoonotic disease transmission — reveals about the trend line for animal-to-human viral transmission is no laughing matter.

Author:  Grace Vojta   In:  The Politic

These pandemics call attention to the necessity of human-animal-environment health balance, a field now called “One HEALTH.” …..  To see One HEALTH in action, look no further than the European Commission, who in 2018 released an extensive report purporting One HEALTH as the only sustainable solution to zoonotic disease. This vision for health systems is one of the first to acknowledge the symbiosis between environmental, animal, and human health. One HEALTH also encourages international investment in a strong global health system, before the next bubonic plague—or the next coronavirus—arrives.

Advice to WHO - One Health:

• Work with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and countries to identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts. This should be accomplished through efforts such as scientific and collaborative field missions, which will enable targeted interventions and a research agenda to reduce the risk of similar events.
• Work closely with OIE and FAO to provide guidance on how to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections in animals and humans and prevent the establishment of new zoonotic reservoirs.
• Work with partner organizations and countries to strengthen the global food supply chain, protect food workers, properly manage food markets, and mitigate possible disruptions to the food supply.

Author: Damian Carrington   In:  The Guardian

Exclusive: only one species is responsible for coronavirus – humans – say world’s leading wildlife experts.

A global “One Health” approach must also be expanded, they said. “The health of people is intimately connected to the health of wildlife, the health of livestock and the health of the environment. It’s actually one health,” said Daszak.

Authors: Josef Settele, Sandra Díaz, Eduardo Brondizio and Peter Daszak    In: Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

First, we must ensure the strengthening and enforcement of environmental regulations

Second, we should adopt a ‘One Health’ approach at all levels of decision-making – from the global to the most local – recognizing the complex interconnections among the health of people, animals, plants and our shared environment.

Third, we have to properly fund and resource health systems and incentivise behaviour change on the frontlines of pandemic risk.

From the OIE

In the face of the current pandemic, solidarity is key. On the occasion of World Veterinary Day, April 25th, the OIE pays tribute to the great effort made by the veterinary profession to support the human health sector, from research to human sample testing, as well as provision of human and material resources.... . … This pandemic impacts populations in numerous ways and reminds us that multi-sectoral collaboration, in line with the “One Health” approach, and the sharing of expertise are more important than ever.

Author: Simon Doherty   British Veterinary Association Blog Post

In our daily interactions with livestock keepers, pet and horse owners, and a wide array of animal health and welfare stakeholders, we all have a part to play in One Health – now, during the Covid-19 outbreak, more than ever – to provide clear messaging in the control of infectious diseases and a willingness to work together to create solutions to the problems we face and will continue to face in the post-Covid-19 era.

In: Vetfolio

Author: Simone McCarthy   In:  South China Morning Post

• Health groups have already learned lessons from previous outbreaks involving animals
• But approach requires more collaboration between disciplines and across governments

"The One Health approach, based on the idea that human, animal and environmental health are interrelated, has gained traction in the past two decades, as it has been embraced by the

World Health Organisation and other health institutions…..But the approach demands that different fields of expertise and government departments work together, which can result in bottlenecks caused by politics and bureaucracy, according to professionals working on One Health programmes."

I am Bio Podcast  -  Jim Greenwood interviews Dr. Billy Karesh of EcoHealth Alliance

"There's a joke among ecological health scientists that if “you don’t believe one person can change the world, try eating an undercooked bat.” However, what EcoHealth Alliance’s Dr. William Karesh — a world-renowned expert on zoonotic disease transmission — reveals about the trend line for animal-to-human viral transmission is no laughing matter."

Author:  Steve Osofsky     Post on Cornell University's Medium.com

In September 2004, a group of colleagues and I, concerned that the intrinsic relationships between our health and the way we manage the environment were not being recognized, met in New York City and put forward The Manhattan Principles on “One World, One Health,”  ......... It seems somewhat ironic that this 2004 call to action came from New York City, where COVID-19 has now wrought just the types of tragedy and havoc we were hoping to preclude.

Principle 7

 “Reduce the demand for and better regulate the international live wildlife and bushmeat trade not only to protect wildlife populations but to lessen the risks of disease movement, cross-species transmission, and the development of novel pathogen-host relationships. The costs of this worldwide trade in terms of impacts on public health, agriculture and conservation are enormous, and the global community must address this trade as the real threat it is to global socioeconomic security.”

Author: Richard Seifman  In: IMPAKTER

"COVID-19 now joins the “Annual One Health Locust Pandemic”. Annual because it’s been happening (nearly) every year for thousands of years. One Health because it involves both humans and animals (in this case insects)."

Author: Emily Gilpin   In: Canada's National Observer

“The coronavirus is telling the world what Indigenous Peoples have been saying for thousands of years — if we do not help protect biodiversity and nature, we will face this and even worse threats,”

Must Listen  Podcast

Washington, DC, USA. The Wilson Center's Ground Truth Briefing Podcast conversation; Sharon Guynup, Ellin Carlin and Rod Schoonover, experts who have been tracking the connections between animal, ecosystem, human health, and security, discussed what steps policymakers need to take to mitigate the next global pandemic.

Authors:  Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim

Will we connect the dots to the devastation of the climate emergency that lurks in the background of this pandemic moment? Endless suffering, millions of refugees, droughts and floods, tumultuous weather and devastating storms. 

Author: Tim Vernimmen   In: Knowable Magazine from Annual Reviews

We know pathogens from other species can endanger us. Scientists are better equipped than ever to do something about it, but political buy-in is crucial.

Author: Tim Vernimmen interviews Dr. Jonna Mazet  In: Knowable Magazine From Annual Reviews

"Most of the emerging diseases that threaten us humans — including SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the Covid-19 pandemic — are zoonotic, meaning the microorganisms that cause them come from another animal."

Author: Calgary Herald   In:  The London Free Press

"A large percentage of infectious diseases — both existing and emerging — are zoonotic, meaning they originated in animals and jumped to humans. We need to recognize the inextricable links between people, animals and our shared environment — and infectious diseases that can kill. And we need to recognize that human medicine, veterinary medicine, public health policy and other disciplines must break out of their silos and work together against potentially catastrophic global health problems like the coronavirus……….Enter the concept of One Health. It emerged as a movement from the growing realization that we can’t manage complex health issues using siloed approaches. Instead, a One Health approach involves experts from a wide range of disciplines coming to the table and putting heads together to find solutions."

Hosted by the US. Congressional International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF):

• David Quammen, author of ‘Spillover’, gave an overview of Animal Infections and the next Human Pandemic
• John Scanlon defined the terms ‘wet markets’, illegal wildlife trade and shared context that subsistence hunting of wildlife to feed families should not/would not be banned.
• Christian Walzer discussed health implications of stopping the commercial trade in wildlife for human consumption and specifically called for implementing One Health
• Jimmiel Mandima focused on wildlife trade and the role of law enforcement in protecting against future pandemics suggesting that the drivers of pandemics need to be addressed holistically through cross-sectoral integrated planning and coordinated solutions that use the One Health approach

Authors: New Jersey One Health Initiative    In: Letters to the Editor, The Star-Ledger / NJ.com

"The New Jersey Legislature is promoting this [One Health] initiative by being the first state [in the U.S.] with legislation pending to commence an NJ One Health Task Force. As noted in Senate Bill S347 Legislative Statement: “One Health recognizes that the health of people is connected to the health of animals and the environment. One Health is not a new concept, but it has become increasingly important in recent years, as many factors have changed interactions between people, animals, and the environment, leading to the emergence or reemergence of many diseases. A One Health approach encourages collaborative efforts of experts working across the human, animal, and environmental health to improve the health of people and animals, including pets, livestock, and wildlife."

Author: Amy Barret    In:  BBC Science Focus Magazine

"Contact between humans and wildlife ‘increases the risk of virus spillover', say researchers, while human activity responsible for wildlife population declines has enabled the spread of zoonotic viruses."

Author: Christine Johnson   In: The Royal Society B Publishing Blog

"Our findings also provide evidence that human actions, specifically exploitation of wildlife, such as hunting and the wildlife trade, were important drivers of virus spillover. These actions have not only increased risk of virus transmission to people but have furthered the decline of many wildlife species, putting them at risk of extinction. Human encroachment into wildlife habitat has similarly resulted in increased contact with wild animals, heightened rates of virus spillover and created losses in species abundance."

Authors: Peta Lee Hitchins and Christine Johnson    In: University of Melbourne 'Pursuit'

"Don’t blame the pangolin. Don’t blame the bats. Don’t blame the animals. COVID-19 is all on us."

Author:  Steve Osofsky   In:  The Times of India

“I want people to know that the majority of emerging viruses come from wildlife – not to blame wildlife or to create a backlash against wild creatures. I would argue for the opposite, in fact – what we need could perhaps best be described as behavioural distancing……….While there are literally hundreds of thousands of viruses in mammals alone,  there are really only three basic ways we, through our own behaviours, invite them into humanity’s living room – we eat or trade the body parts of wild animals; we capture and mix wild species together to trade them in markets; and we destroy what’s left of wild nature at a dizzying pace (think deforestation), greatly enhancing our encounter rates with new pathogens along the way. Our species continues to pillage what’s left of wild nature and our planet’s fellow species, as if there were no tomorrow. And with no lack of irony, it actually feels like that day has come.“

Author: John Vidal    In:  The Guardian

"Increased contact with animals likely cause of outbreaks such as Covid-19, say experts, as conservationists call for global ban on wildlife markets"

Author: Dana O'brien   In: Agri-Pulse Communications

The COVID-19 outbreak is gripping our planet like no other health crisis in recent history. Overt collaboration and policy action are required to meet this challenge and, as importantly, prepare for the future. Elevating and prioritizing the interconnectedness of living things through One Health strategies and modernizing America’s animal biotechnology regulatory approach are two policies Congress and the White House must confront. In fact, they are long overdue.

Video:  Dr. Billy Karesh      In:  OIE Youtube posting

Author:  Mark Bekoff    In: Psychology Today

"Given that humans have to be part of the healing process, I decided to revisit the One Health movement………………. I am a strong supporter of this initiative …………and you can read more about it in an interview I did with the University of Denver's Sarah Bexell, .....

Dr. Bexell correctly notes, if we harm one of the three pillars of the One Health movement—humans, other species, and the natural environment—all three are harmed. The pillars are closely interlinked. On the positive and hopeful side, when we work to protect one pillar, all have a better chance of positive outcomes and surviving……

Regardless of future possibilities, for now, while we're here, we need to deal with our ubiquitous presence. We must work together and do much better than we've done."

Author: Karen Brulliard   In: The Washington Post

Stronger surveillance for illness in wild animals — regarding them as “sentinels” — is needed, Leendertz said. So is a widespread realization that building in wild habitats can fuel public health crises, Gillespie said. 

Many researchers say the coronavirus pandemic underscores the need for a more holistic “one health” approach, which views human, animal and environmental health as interconnected.

“There needs to be a cultural shift from a community level up about how we treat animals, our understanding of the dangers and biosecurity risks that we’re exposing ourselves to,” said Kate Jones, chair of ecology and biodiversity at University College London. “That means leaving ecosystems intact, not destroying them. It means thinking in a more long-term way.”

Dr. Steve Osofsky speaks with Cornell PhD students' Excellsior Podcast series calling on the global community to embrace One Health and, for the good of humanity, stop trading in wildlife in wet markets. 

Author:  Robyn Alders    In: DevPolicy Blog

"Human health is intimately linked with animal, plant and environmental health. Systems thinking using One Health and Planetary Health lenses will be crucial to redesigning global and national systems that can keep us safe, well-nourished, healthy and actively contributing to community well-being. This period of forced physical isolation provides an opportunity to reflect on the systems that underpin our society and our vision for a sustainable development. What will be our vision of sustainable food security and nutritious food systems and their contribution to human health going forward? And what will we do to make our plans a reality at home and abroad?"

Author: Qu Dongyu    In:  DEVEX

Policymakers must take care to avoid accidentally tightening food-supply conditions. While every country faces its own challenges, collaboration — between governments and the full gamut of sectors and stakeholders — is paramount. We are experiencing a global problem that requires a global response.

Interview of Dr. Brian Reed on ABC13 EYEWITNESS News

"There's this concept called One Health where animal health, environmental health and human health are all linked, and we do see occasions where diseases that affect animals make its leap to humans,"

Interviewee:  Greg Gray  Recording In:  Duke University Headscrathers Podcast

"......What we need to really be doing is looking at the human-animal interface and monitoring for novel viruses that might emerge from that interface. Looking at people who have close contact with animals and seeing when they have evidence in their respiratory tract of a new virus that's emerged from the animals, and then making preparations way before the virus cycles over and over and becomes highly infectious to man. And we can do that -- and the way to do it is through something called One Health. Working together with human health, veterinary health, environmental health on specific problem areas like these, to get ahead of this, so we're not always responding to the latest threat....."

Author: Camilla Benfield   In: Cambridge Independent

“Our post-Covid-19 world must adopt a more holistic approach to health in order to protect it. This approach must be less introspective and human-focused.

It must recognise, and respect, the critical interdependencies between human, animal and environmental health, and the porosity of national and species barriers to pathogens. This enables us to mitigate disease emergence and ecosystem dysfunction at the proximal stage of resource extraction and utilisation, while being sensitive to human needs and cultures. We must not vilify or persecute wildlife, knowing that they may harbour potential pathogens, but instead preserve the integrity and health of their habitats and limit encroachment.”

Author:   Claude Forthomme    In: Impakter

“Greenpeace Italy’s director, Giuseppe Onufrio, ……………., sounded the alarm five days ago in a well-researched article exploring the possible relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and air pollution.

He started by reminding us that biodiversity destruction, urbanization, and globalization trigger the well-known mechanism of “spillover” of new viruses from wild species to humans – something that was highlighted in a recent Impakter article by Richard Seifman calling for a “one health” approach to address pandemics, i.e. treating animal and human health as one. This is particularly relevant in COVID-19’s case that started in a market in Wuhan with the sale of wild meat.

Author:  Tim Hollo    In:  The Guardian

Everything is connected…..….

Damage the environment and we damage ourselves. And not just some of us – all of us together. Continue to think in our compartmentalised, linear fashion, and we’ll keep missing what’s coming, be it weeks of smoke, runs on toilet paper, or deadly pandemics……………..

We have an opportunity now to not just push for a new generation of environment laws, but to re-evaluate the whole deal, to cultivate a new political settlement based on ecological principles of living well together in harmony with the natural world, understanding our place as part of it as First Peoples did for millenniums, with an economy designed to serve people and planet…………..

Politics, like the natural world it operates within, is a system. It works in complex ways because all it is is the collected actions of humans, influenced by each other and by external impetuses such as the weather. Or viruses……………

Donella Meadows, the modern mother of systems thinking, wrote that the most effective leverage point to change a system is “the mindset or paradigm out of which the system ... arises”. It’s critical, then, that we confront the paradigm which sees environmental protection as of marginal importance at best, and as a barrier at worst. It’s vital that we challenge the mindsets of human disconnection from and dominance over nature…………….

Dr. Ilaria Capua, Director, One Health Center, University of Florida, gave an online webinar for Biology graduate students and faculty explaining the concept of One Health and using the current COVID-19 pandemic to frame the importance of the One Health perspective.

Author: Scott Nolen  In:  JAVMA News

Dr. Saif said veterinarians should be involved in all aspects of zoonotic infections, in concert with a one-health approach. “Veterinarians need to be part of identifying the animal reservoirs and the intermediate hosts for these diseases,” she said. “This may focus on wildlife medicine, such as understanding the habitats and diversity of bat species as reservoirs for coronaviruses and multiple other viruses.”………………… “Also, more veterinarians should be working with other researchers to develop the most appropriate animal models for these diseases since we cannot test antivirals or vaccines without an animal model that reproduces the human disease and responses. “

Author: George Lueddeke     In: PEAH – Policies for Equitable Access to Health

See Proposition #7 from Lueddeke’s Ten Propositions for Global Sustainability,

‘What if’ the unifying One Health and Well-Being Concept became the cornerstone of our education systems and societal institutions, thereby helping to create a ‘more just, sustainable and peaceful world’ (UN SDGs)? ……… “The criticality  of making a paradigm shift from human-centric to eco-centric thinking and behaviours is what the Covid-19 wake-up call is all about and ‘represents a precious opportunity to learn…a moment that affords an opportunity to understand what happened, why it happened and what we should do next’(4). Proposition #7 recommends that consideration be given for the One Health & Well-Being concept to become the cornerstone of our education systems and societal institutions.

Authors: Rishika Pardikar and Bhasker Tripathi   In:  Fit

"As the destruction of habitat and biodiversity loss expose humans to more zoonotic diseases that spread from animals to humans, a key programme to study the spread of these diseases and suggest ways to control them has been in the works in India since 2018. Following a global framework, the programme could help governments minimise the impact of an outbreak and prevent an outbreak from turning into an epidemic, experts told IndiaSpend."

Author: Nancy Ogonje     In: The Star

" A number of studies have linked reduced diversity among mammal species and an overall decrease in biodiversity to a rise in animal-borne diseases to humans. "

Sun J, He W, Wang L, Lai A, Ji X, Zhai X, Li G, Suchard MA, Tian J, Zhou J, Veit M, Su S, Trends in Molecular Medicine, In Press

" Similarities of receptor sequence binding to 2019-nCoV between humans and animals suggest a low species barrier for transmission of the virus to farm animals. We propose, based on the One Health model, that veterinarians and animal specialists should be involved in a cross-disciplinary collaboration in the fight against this epidemic. "

Author: Louise Boyle   In:  The Independent

The novel coronavirus will not be the last pandemic to wreak havoc on humanity if we continue to ignore links between infectious diseases and destruction of the natural world, environmental experts have warned..... Keeping the wild places intact, banning the hunting and traffic of wildlife species, many of which are endangered, would not only be practical but beneficial in terms of human health and economics. For governments and policy makers, it is going to be very clear that investment in protecting our natural world is the most cost-effective one they can make.

Podcast: PhD Student Kurayi Mahachi, University of Iowa interviewed on U Iowa PlayerFM

Author: Clara Seville   In: DEVEX

“Animal health systems are currently the weakest link in the One Health initiative — a concept that brings interdisciplinary teams in human, animal, and environmental health together……Despite this, there has been little investment in veterinary services and veterinary public health in low- and middle- income countries, resulting in epidemics such as COVID-19 and zoonotic diseases that hinder the potential of individuals, communities, and whole nations……According to OIE, the World Organisation for Animal Health: “

‘Livestock and Veterinary Services are chronically under-resourced against all comparative measures. Poor financial resources and inadequately staffed and organised Veterinary Services results in high livestock losses and uncontrolled epidemics.’ “

Author:  Ilaria Capua  In: LifeGate

Last year, Capua – whose phone has been ringing without interruption for days – wrote the book Circular Health: Empowering the One Health Revolution (Salute circolare. Una rivoluzione necessaria in the original Italian), published in Italy by Egea with an English translation upcoming in summer 2020. It focuses on the need to “rethink pathways, and suggest new and revolutionary ones to achieve a better balance with animals, plants as well as the environment that welcomes us every day”. These themes are as relevant as ever given that the SARS-CoV-2 virus behind the Covid-19 disease seems to have emerged from an “interspecies leap” caused by our exploitative and disrespectful manipulation of wild fauna and flora. Here’s what Capua told us about the importance of ecology and sustainability in facing a crisis such as the one we’re currently in.

Author:  John Vidal  In: The Guardian

"..... a number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity’s destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases such as Covid-19, the viral disease that emerged in China in December 2019, to arise – with profound health and economic impacts in rich and poor countries alike. In fact, a new discipline, planetary health, is emerging that focuses on the increasingly visible connections between the wellbeing of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems. "

(Though not exactly the same, on this point One Health and Planetary Health move in lockstep working in parallel toward a common goal.)

Author Unknown  In: German.China.CN Blog

"On Sina Weibo, a microblogging platform, millions of people supported the ban with confidence that it will benefit both wildlife and human society. 'This is the first time that China's top legislature has imposed a nationwide ban that eliminates the decades-old habit of eating wild animals,' said Li Binbin, an assistant professor at Duke Kunshan University's environmental research center in Jiangsu Province. She said the decision shows the significant link between animal welfare and public health and eco-security. 'It is a crucial step in regulating the Chinese wildlife market and will constructively change the country's international image.' "

In: Diario San Rafael

“To avoid collapse, the WHO proposes the One health concept, linking environmental with animal and human health. If the world gets sick, humans, who are part of it, too….. Achieving this interdisciplinarity is one of the greatest challenges of the “anthropocene” era, marked by the accelerated destruction of the planet due to the actions of man.”

(Open in Chrome for translation)

Author: Rodríguez AB, In: ENDI, Elvuedvodia.com, Puerto Rico

In 2002 there was SARS and in 2012 MERS. Both cause severe respiratory syndromes in humans and are caused by different coronaviruses that originate from bats, but that used carrier species to affect people. In the case of SARS it was the civet cat and in MERS the camels. Hence the importance of understanding the behavior of these viruses and how animals, humans and the environment are related. A key concept known as One Health interrelates these three elements and is currently used to understand COVID-19.  

Author: Adrian J Ivakhiv , In: Immanence: ecoculture, geophilosophy, mediapolitics

“The appearance of Coronavirus means that, suddenly, there is a massive taking account of a new visitor…… Like Edward Gorey’s “doubtful guest,” viruses arrive unbidden, surprisingly and mysteriously, stoking fear and taking victims without ever fully revealing their intents. They are “doubtful” not only because we doubt their guesthood. It is also doubtful that they are the guest and we are the host: the tables could easily be reversed to reveal us as the guests, setting up our tables amidst them and feigning surprise when they show up to take a seat. …. Their impact on us depends on our response to their presence. As some have advocated for years, the best response is something like the One Health Initiative, “a worldwide program, involving more than 600 scientists and other professionals, that advances the idea that human, animal and ecological health are inextricably linked and need to be studied and managed holistically.”  There is a global ecology of relations that implicate us, participants in global humanity. And it is calling us to take notice.”

Authors: Hannah Joan Jørgensen, Carlos das Neves   In:  Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening

'One health' unites the sciences devoted to studies of human disease, non-human disease and ecological problems. Interdisciplinary research, surveillance and sharing of information should form the foundation for practical interventions locally, nationally and internationally. It should involve decision-makers, doctors, vets, ecologists and other natural and social scientists. If the global society is to succeed in preventing future pandemics, interdisciplinary and international research and knowledge generation are crucial. It is in Norway's interests to contribute to this.

In: Mirage News

“What was extremely interesting from the start, but isn’t discussed so much now, is why we humans can get this virus at all. It’s a matter of human expansion. We’ve become too numerous, and take up too much space. We humans exploit animals and nature. So we get not only meat and milk, but also strange viruses. This ought to be given more attention,” Olsen says.

Scientists call this interdisciplinary way of looking at health “One Health”. Since many infectious agents circulate between animals and humans in nature, doctors, veterinarians and ecologists are collaborating in their quest to understand how various pathogens spread and how new infections arise.  View the full interview.

Author: Jane Qui  In:  Scientific American

“ 'Once potential pathogens are mapped out, scientists and public health officials can regularly check for possible infections by analyzing blood and swab samples from livestock, wild animals that are farmed and traded, and high-risk human populations, such as farmers, miners, villagers who live near bats, and people who hunt or handle wildlife,' Gray says. 'This approach, known as “One Health,”, aims to integrate the management of wildlife health, livestock health, and human health. Only then can we catch an outbreak before it turns into an epidemic,” he says, adding that the approach could potentially save the hundreds of billions of dollars such an epidemic can cost.”

Author: Rodríguez AB, In: ENDI, Elvuedvodia.com,Puerto Rico

“….if a habitat that has animals is destroyed, what will happen to these animals and their diseases? These can pass to animals that have never been exposed to these bacteria or viruses, or sometimes to people in that nearby habitat. How can we solve these problems? Looking at these interactions through the concept of One Health (“One Health”). This concept unites the human medical, veterinary and environmental aspects. Through the scientific collaboration of the three branches, it is the only way in which we can understand how these diseases behave and how to face them. “

(Open in Chrome for translation)

Authors:  Machalaba C and Karesh WB    In: Foreign Affairs

"Yet around the world, governments and international organizations have treated the new coronavirus outbreak as a public health problem rather than a larger societal one whose causes and consequences will affect everything from finance and insurance to tourism and agriculture. Nearly every other type of disaster calls upon multiple sectors for response and prevention."

Authors:  Andrew Jack and Darren Dodd, In: Financial Times

“…..the biggest question is whether the world will give greater priority to investing in the prevention of future pandemics. That requires more focus on links between health and the environment including “one health” measures to limit the spread of animal infection to humans. Examples include tougher controls on their intensifying interactions through climate change, deforestation and “wet markets” where live animals are sold for slaughter.”

Author: Kuchipudi SV   In:  US News and World Report

As the current outbreak has shown, an infectious disease that starts in one part of the world can spread globally in virtually no time whatsoever. There is an urgent need for constructive conservation strategies to prevent deforestation and reduce animal-human interactions. And a comprehensive global surveillance system to monitor the emergence of these diseases – now missing – would be an indispensable tool in helping us fight these deadly and terrifying epidemics.

Author: Flavie Vial and Paul Duff, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Gov.UK Blog

“The emergence of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance in wildlife must be viewed through a multi-disciplinary lens that captures issues and threats not only in people and domesticated animals but also the wider environment. One Health is the only approach to mitigating health risks in today’s world.”

By George Lueddeke in PEAH, Policies for Equitable Access to Health, March 2020

Proposition #7 is pivotal for all others ...

What If?... THE UNIFYING ONE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING CONCEPT became the cornerstone of our education systems and societal institutions, thereby helping to create a “more just, sustainable and peaceful world” (UN-2030 Global Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs)?”

Author:  Jeff Wichtel   In: Toronto Star

Author: Kurt Shrader, US Congressional Representative from Oregon  In : Statesman Journal (part of USA Today)

“Diseases like Ebola, SARS and the Coronavirus are all examples of pandemics that began in animals before spreading to humans. This is why I have partnered with my fellow veterinarian Ted Yoho, R- Florida, to develop and advocate for the implementation of a framework called One Health. One Health framework prioritizes coordinated research between federal agencies like the CDC and USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services to prevent, prepare for and respond to zoonotic disease outbreaks in the U.S. and internationally. We introduced the bipartisan Advancing Emergency Preparedness Through One Health Act to coordinate and fund a One Health plan so we can prevent outbreaks and rapidly respond to them.

Hosted by the Ohio State University Global One Health Institute. Dr. Linda Saif discusses historic and current coronavirus outbreaks/pandemics.

KfW Online Newsroom. German. Open in Chrome for translation.

Two thirds of all new infectious diseases worldwide, like the current coronavirus "Covid-19", come from animals. There is a growing awareness among experts that a much broader approach is needed to efficiently and effectively combat these diseases transmitted from animals to humans, which is summarized under the term "One Health".

Author: Dr. Siti Nursheena Mohd Zain, In: New Straits Times, Malaysia

"....all stakeholders, including clinicians, scientists, veterinarians and ecologists, must work together with government ministries to come up with practical solutions to combat new and emerging diseases. "

Author: Muringatheri M.  In:  The Hindu

“The concept of One Health can be effectively implemented for reducing incidence of emerging zoonotic threats like COVID-19. One Health is the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment, ..."

Author:  Tan M, In: Philippine Daily Inquirer

In times like these we need to think of One Health, which considers the interactions of the health of humans, of the environment, and of nonhuman animals. We started the decade with all kinds of challenges to this notion of One Health. Think of Taal, the eruption of which was a gigantic paroxysmal “cough” that wreaked havoc on humans and nonhuman animals. Humans form the most complicated part of One Health—nearly 8 billion of us now, many living in very densely populated megacities.

Author:  Laura Kahn    In: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist

Author: Seifman R.  Board Member, United Nations Association-National Capital Area

China's troubles with the on-going coronavirus outbreak originate with its animal health policies and programs:  They need to change and here is how.

What to do?     Simply put, pursue a One Health approach, one which leads to integrated human-animal-environmental health policies and actions. To do this China, and other countries to be sure, will need to spend much more on veterinarians, wildlife professionals, food safety officers, and animal virus laboratory professionals. ........Most importantly, they need to actively make aware and engage civil society and communities in identifying possible animal diseases, providing incentives for reporting, not fear in so doing. More reference veterinarians and animal health para-professionals, as well as microbiologists and laboratory technicians,  and animal and human reference laboratories, are needed to analyze a suspected virus, to prevent and contain, rather than resorting to a costly response.

Author: Greg Gray  In: The Hill

"This emerging collaborative field, often called “one health,” integrates knowledge from several different spheres, including human health, animal health, environmental health and agricultural businesses. The approach is gaining traction among academics, government officials and international policymakers as the best way to approach complex problems such as emerging zoonotic diseases. But we need to do more to integrate this approach into how we prepare for viruses like the newly emerged coronavirus."

Author: Theresa Vargas, In: The Washington Post

Suzan Murray, director of the Smithsonian’s Global Health Program and former chief veterinarian of the zoo, says it was once normal for people to talk about the environment and human health separately. Now, she says, there is a “holistic approach.” There is recognition that human health is tied to the health of the environment and the wildlife in it.

Authors:  Kock RA, Karesh WB, et. al.   In: The Lancet, Planetary Health

“There is an increasing focus on the human-animal environment disease interface, as encompassed in the One Health concept…… .......have we learned lessons? Yes and no. These events are of global public health and economic importance and need collective societal response. But governments and civil society are not heeding these warnings, as the 2019-nCoV attests. Concerns have been repeatedly raised and voiced since the idea of One Health was first expressed in around 2000. What we need to learn and communicate is that the zoonotic or agricultural bridging of novel pathogens from domestic and captive wildlife needs urgent attention, along with attention to the human appetite for meat.”

Author: Richard Seifman

.... "When we speak of “health” we usually mean “human health”. But over 70% of infectious diseases affecting “humans” are zoonotic, from animals to humans. For optimal health outcomes, we need to take into consideration human, animal, plant, and environmental health. That integrated strategy is at the heart of the “One Health” approach.".....

Author:  Kate Allen    In:  The Star, Ontario, Canada

“One Health might sound like a hippie maxim, something you would see on a T-shirt in Kensington Market. But it is a widely accepted principle, one adopted by the World Health Organization, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and other health authorities worldwide.

The current coronavirus outbreak is a sobering reminder that there is no firewall between animal and human health. Scientists believe the virus likely originated in bats and jumped to people at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. More than 60 per cent of emerging infectious diseases come from animals, and more than 70 per cent of those from wildlife, research shows. “

“We’re just one inhabitant of the planet, although we’re overtaking it, absolutely. And we need the health of the planet,” says Ray, of the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada.  “We have to be thinking about health in a much more holistic way than we have been.”

Authors:  Arne Ruckert, University of Ottawa, Hélène Carabin, Université de Montréal, Ronald Labonte, University of Ottawa

In: The Conversation

International response to this coronavirus also demonstrates considerable improvement, with rapid information flow and reporting of cases by Chinese authorities. But governance challenges remain, along with a growing awareness of the importance of what’s known as a One Health approach to pandemic outbreaks.

A One Health strategy recognizes that the health of humans is intricately linked to that of animals and their environments. In practice, it draws upon experts from human, animal and environmental health sciences, along with those in the humanities and social sciences, to build a response infrastructure that emphasizes information-sharing and co-ordination of actions across multiple sectors.

Author: Dirk U. Pfeiffer In: South China Morning Post

"A ‘one health’ approach, involving not just scientists but experts from disciplines such as economics and anthropology, could help"

Aurthor: Brian Dunleavy  In: Contagion Live, Infectious Diseases Today

Those who require a reminder of the importance of the One Health approach need look no further than the ongoing 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak (2019 n-CoV).
One Health, which is designed to foster and streamline communication between infectious disease professionals engaged in human as well as veterinary health, is essentially where the rubber meets road when an outbreak occurs. Although we still have a lot to learn about the origins of 2019 n-CoV, it’s safe to assume that One Health protocols and principles have played, and will likely continue to play, a key role in getting the ongoing crisis under control

Author: Connor McCoy BioechNow Blog post

Biotechnology is leading to breakthroughs for human, animal and environmental health, but is there a way we can address these outbreaks before they spread from animal to human?         Yes, and the concept is called One Health.

So, what is One Health? It is a public health approach that ensures all areas of government are coordinated and working together to foster and advance innovation that is critical in protecting against diseases and malnutrition. The ability to prevent, prepare for, and respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases such as coronavirus, Ebola, Zika, avian influenza (HPAI) and MERS depends on an improved understanding of the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health.

Author: Gregory C. Gray  In:  US News and World Report

We know that most human emerging disease viruses first circulate in animals, yet we don’t often see them coming.

.................. "The continuous viral reproduction can sometimes lead to mutations or the mixing of viruses and a never-before-seen virus may emerge. Hence, new collaborative partnerships must be forged between agricultural businesses and human, animal and environmental health groups so that emerging viruses can be better be detected and mitigation strategies developed before a novel virus crosses over to infect man. Often, such an interdisciplinary collaboration is termed the "One Health Approach." Many institutions are calling for One Health interdisciplinary collaborations as the best approach to complex problems such as emerging viral threats".................

Author:  Carel du Marchie Sarvaas    In: The Telegraph

Stopping disease in humans by preventing disease in animals underpins the concept of “One Health”, an approach to public health that recognises the links between animals, people and planet.