One Health Movement News / One Health Topics 'in' the News

Frankie is the third of 13 canines in the study—a clinical trial that's part of a growing push to develop new therapies for people by testing them in sick dogs and cats instead of lab rats or mice. Pets are a better model of human illnesses than rodents, advocates contend: They live in the same environments, sometimes eat the same food, and get many of the same diseases, particularly cancers, that we do. So, the thinking goes, they could hold the key to developing new therapies for humans at a fraction of the normal cost—and potentially yield a trove of new medicines for pets themselves.

StopLyme is a new public awareness campaign joining veterinarians and pediatricians to stop a common enemy: Lyme disease. While this tick-borne disease can’t be spread directly between dogs and people, if your dog has been exposed to ticks that spread Lyme disease, you may have been too. To listen to the audio recording on Pet World Radio go to: http://www.petworldradio.net/show-582-time-to-stop-lyme/.

"On the surface, it might seem like we had a really mild flu season.  As 2015 came to a close and most were making plans for the New Year, more than 13,000 people were tested for seasonal influenza A in a single week. Of those, 157 were positive, and one additional novel A infection was confirmed, reflecting an unusually low level of human influenza activity across the nation so far this season.

However, animals haven’t been quite so lucky.  Last year saw a number of influenza A outbreaks in several different species, including horses, dogs, birds and pigs. 

Outbreaks that start in an animal population might not stay there.   One Health, the concept that animal, human and environmental health are connected,  can help us work more effectively with partners across different disciplines, such as doctors, veterinarians, ecologists, and public health experts, to identify and address emerging threats to health that start in animal populations.  

Global ecologic research has confirmed that influenza A viruses are especially likely to make the jump from animal to human hosts.  Influenza A viruses are able to mutate easily causing large-scale or even global outbreaks. They are responsible for all six historical pandemics and the only flu strain with the capability to present such a threat in the future."

CAPE CORAL, FLA.- A deadly bacteria lurking in canals, lakes, and standing water, here in Southwest Florida, could attack your dog with little warning, and your dog could then transfer that disease to you.

It's called leptospirosis and it's spread through wildlife, like raccoons or rats, urinate into local waterways. Their contaminated urine contains bacteria can spread and grow in the water, or even in your backyard, according to Dr. Justin Kerr with Kindness Animal Hospital.