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

Public health advocates know that health is affected by environment, and vice versa. That's the basis for the One Health movement — it outlines how human, animal and environmental health are related. On Nov. 3, the world will celebrate the first One Health Day and come together to discuss how improving health for each sector will improve health for all.

Veterinarians play a key role in combatting the global risk of antimicrobial resistance, say researchers from the University of Washington School of Public Health. However, a new study shows that, while veterinarians are concerned about the threat of drug-resistant bugs, they face financial barriers to obtaining tests to guide therapy.

Bartonella henselae is an emerging, zoonotic pathogen that appears to represent an occupational risk for individuals with
arthropod exposures and animal contact [1, 2]. Rheumatic and musculoskeletal abnormalities have been previously reported
in patients with or following historical cat scratch disease (CSD), caused predominantly or solely by B. henselae [3–5]
In contrast to the classical self-limiting clinical presentation of fever and lymphadenopathy and a history of cat scratch in
patients with CSD, recent evidence supports the possibility of persistent intravascular infections in previously immunocompetent
patients with accompanying rheumatic symptoms [1, 6].

In a hushed conference room in the heart of Research Triangle Park, a veterinary scientist urged college students to picture what might go wrong when the wild and the tame collide. To focus their thinking, NC State University professor Suzanne Kennedy-Stoskopf shared a sobering scenario that could occur in North Carolina.

Henao-Restrepo et al. report the final results of a large efficacy trial of a novel, live attenuated vaccine against Ebola conducted in 2015 in the Republic of Guinea (Lancet, Published online December 22, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32621-6). A single inoculation of the vaccine proved 100% effective in preventing Ebola virus disease. The trial was conducted under the leadership of the World Health Organization, in difficult circumstances during the large West African epidemic underway at the time and utilized a ring vaccination strategy which is described in detail in the publication.

A vet at a New York City animal shelter where cats were infected with a strain of bird flu has also been infected, health officials said Thursday. 

The vet only had mild illness from the virus, called H7N2, the New York City Department of Health said.

"Congratulations to the "One Health, One Caribbean, One Love Project.” Representing twelve countries, twenty-nine professionals from the animal, human, and environmental health sector were successfully trained on the One Health Concept. The trainees new expertise will help Caribbean governments to more efficiently and effectively control and prevent the introduction of new and emerging diseases. For additional information, see the press release."

Could vaccinating cattle get more girls into high school?

That's the intriguing prospect suggested by a new study of Kenyan cattle herding families in the journal Science Advances. But even more significant than the actual results of the study is the fact the researchers would even think to investigate whether there's a link between cattle vaccination rates and girls' high school attendance.

To find a cure for a bacterial infection that kills 30,000 Americans annually, the National Institutes of Health just awarded a $1.5 million grant—to a veterinary lab.  

Scientists at North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine will use that funding to study how the Clostridium difficile bacteria affects animals, with the hope that what they discover will apply to humans, too.

Ohio HB 580 - To enact sections 5.238 , 5.239, and 5.2310 of the Revised Code to designate the month of November as "One Health Awareness Month," .................

"West Nile virus, Lyme disease and rabies are some of the diseases that a visitor to a national park in the United States could encounter – but there’s an app for that.

Emma St. Aubin, a recent graduate of the master’s in public health program in the Colorado School of Public Health at CSU, has created a mobile application to provide National Park Service visitors with information needed to identify and prevent zoonotic, communicable and vector-borne diseases within the parks.

The mobile app, supported by an agreement between NPS and ColoradoSPH, serves as an electronic handbook for park visitors. If a visitor is not aware of a disease they may encounter, they can look up the symptoms, the causes of the symptoms and possible treatments of the disease. It also lists disease-spreading animals within the parks, so that visitors can readily identify the cause of their disease and accurately figure out a treatment."

The NPS application is currently only available at the Google Play store for Android devices.

To download the app visit the Google Play store.

For more information about the national parks, visit the NPS website.

The Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal is a knowledge management tool for locating the most relevant scientific literature on the health implications of climate change. It provides access to a database of studies from around the world, published between 2007 and 2014. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) developed the database as a technical input to the U.S. Global Change Research Program's Sustained Assessment process. The portal is an effort to make this database more accessible to a wider global audience, and to provide updates on a regular basis to further the study of climate impacts on human health.

You may not feel ready to kick the habit just yet.

But health officials are urging smokers to quit - if only to save their pets.

Chemicals in tobacco smoke wreak havoc on the blood and organs of cats, dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters and even fish - driving up their risk of developing cancer, heart disease or lung disease.

Dr. Barrett is the Vice President of Science and Research at Propeller Health, a health technology company dedicated to better understanding how the environment influences chronic respiratory disease. Her training in ecology, population health and spatial analysis has enabled her to study the impacts of environmental change on both infectious and chronic disease. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California Berkeley and San Francisco. She completed her PhD in Ecology at Duke University, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and was mentored by Anne Yoder and collaborators at the Duke Lemur Center. Her research investigated how climate change drives spatial patterns of wildlife and human health in Madagascar, and how these patterns may influence the risk of disease transmission. Her research has been published in Science, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment and Big Data, among other journals, and in popular media such as The Huffington Post.

A new drug shows promise for treating heart disease in cats and humans, according to research by a team including veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine.

The novel drug, MYK-461, proved effective in a study of five cats with a naturally occurring form of inherited hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a currently incurable disease that also affects humans.

NIEHS welcomed Terry Henry and his psychiatric medical alert assistance dog, Campbell, Nov. 9 for a Veterans Day observance. Henry chairs the board of trustees and oversees operations for paws4people (P4P), an organization that breeds, trains, and places assistance dogs, to help those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other injuries or traumas.

“Those who think combat is required to get PTSD are sorely mistaken,” said Henry, a veteran and founder of paws4vets, a component of P4P.

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization declared that Ebola is no longer a public health emergency. While there are still outbreaks of patients infected with Ebola in Africa, local health officials are able to quickly identify and treat patients, keeping the virus from spreading. All that is good. But we can't put our guard down just because Ebola is not making headlines. We must be prepared for the next epidemic.

In celebration of One Health Day 2016 a special Issue highlighting One Health Training, Research and Outreach around the world was published in the online, open access journal,  Infection Ecology and Epidemiology

Authors Laaser (U of Bielefeld, Germany), Dorey and Nurse ( Commonwealth Secretariat, United Kingdom) make key recommendations relevant to implementing the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. They highlight that a ‘top-down political strategy for global health needs to be complemented by a bottom-up strategy to gain momentum’. The importance of involving public health professionals worldwide in implementation of the One Health concept is underscored.

Flyer, a 70-pound golden retriever, lies patiently on her left side on an examination table as technicians scurry around, placing little sandbags on her legs and neck to keep her still. She’s getting chest X-rays to answer a critical question: Has a deadly bone cancer spread to her lungs? 

When the session is over, Martha MaloneyHuss, a veterinarian at the University of Pennsylvania’s Ryan Veterinary Hospital, glances at the images. “I don’t see anything hugely obvious,” she says, “but we’ll see what the radiologist says.” Oblivious to the good news, Flyer hops down the hall on three legs, eager to find her owner.

An international research team led from Australia and China has discovered nearly 1,500 new viruses.

The scientists looked for evidence of virus infection in a group of animals called invertebrates, which includes insects and spiders.

The Arctic Ocean may seem remote and forbidding, but to birds, whales and other animals, it’s a top-notch dining destination.

“It’s a great place to get food in the summertime, so animals are flying or swimming thousands of miles to get there,” said Kevin R. Arrigo, a biological oceanographer at Stanford University.

Infectious-disease outbreaks not only have the potential to destabilize societies, they pose a threat to international economies, as well.

What should public-health officials and businesses be doing to prepare?

Physicians Thomas Frieden, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, sat down with Wall Street Journal Assistant Managing Editor Laura Landro to discuss this issue. Edited excerpts follow.

In 2013 it was Chikungunya virus moving from across the oceans into the Caribbean before spreading extensively through warmer climates of the Western Hemisphere. In 2014 it was Zika virus entering Brazil from across the Pacific and from there on to locations through South and Central America and the Caribbean, then into the southern United States. Now, as of November 2016, another infectious pathogen has made its way for the first time into the Western Hemisphere. This one is a parasitic worm, long established in Europe, but appearing this month in Mexico and posing a threat of further expansion into a wide range of the Americas. In this case, the range may extend even into temperate areas with cold climates. The new disease-causing invader is a filarial worm, Dirofilaria repens, probably brought to Mexico in a dog reservoir host; and like the viral pathogens that preceded it, the transmitting vectors are mosquitoes that are common throughout the Americas.

Over the past few years, Ebola and Zika have shown the world the importance of One Health – an interdisciplinary approach to health care that brings together humans, animals, and the environment. Ecologists have repeatedly pointed out that human impact on the environment (via deforestation, development, etc.) is bringing people and wildlife into ever increasing contact. Additionally, the world must discover how to feed the projected population of nine billion people without causing further environmental harm. Clinicians in both human and animal health must find ways to communicate despite our siloed systems. This will require conjoined, sustained, and simultaneous attention across many professional arenas. One Health is a path to accomplishing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, from Planetary Health to Global Health Security. During this COCA Call, clinicians will learn about several arenas of One Health, discuss the critical need for and process of connecting the many passionate stakeholders around the world, and share an update on efforts across the U.S. and beyond to make One Health ways of thinking the ‘default way of doing business.’

Antibiotic resistance has become one of the biggest threats to global health & endangers other major priorities, such as development.

It is rising to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world, compromising our ability to treat infectious diseases & undermining many advances in health & medicine. 

The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Western University is seeking an innovative scientist of international standing in One Health. One Health is an integrative, systems approach field comprising of medical, sociological, economical, ecological, and animal/wildlife aspects in relation to human health and disease. We invite applications from outstanding investigators with exceptional mentoring records and sustained, high levels of research productivity to apply. Qualified applicants must hold an MD, PhD or MD/PhD and a demonstrated record of outstanding research and publications in the field of One Health. 

Humans and animals have much in common. They share issues of health and disease and co-exist in common environments. Advancing technologies and science-based evidence are increasing awareness, knowledge, and understanding of these interdependencies, further supporting the concept of “One Health.” 

The “One Health Systems Mapping Analysis and Resource Toolkit”, OH SMART, is a process mapping tool co-developed by University of Minnesota (UMN) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

It serves as a standardised method to analyse and facilitate improvements to the system of communication and coordination among and between disciplines as they address complex One Health issues.

One Health is the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working to attain optimal health for humans, animals and the environment - and November 3, 2016 is International One Health Day! Find out more about what One Health means to the the practitioners in the Preparedness & Response project - and how it's an essential part of our response to emerging pandemic threats, and global health security.

One Health Day Calls for Trans-disciplinary Collaborations to Improve Global Health

Late one night in April 2013, UK veterinarian Jonathan Cranston woke in agony. There was a sharp pain shooting through his chest.

"I felt like I'd been stabbed," he said. The pain soon passed, however, and he went back to sleep. "I didn't think much of it."

But that would not be the end of his ordeal.

In the weeks that followed, the stabbing pain didn't return, but it was replaced with night sweats, shortness of breath, coughing and weight loss. "I started deteriorating quite quickly," he said.

The series brings together thought leaders to share forward-looking perspectives in the areas of health, social and environmental policy, and international development. 

A while back Dr. Lois Krahn, a sleep medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine, set out to explore the impact of pets on human health – in particular on the quality of nocturnal sleep. One of her most popular studies, released in late 2015, was conducted by means of a questionnaire where 150 respondents were asked whether they believed their pets influenced the quality of their own sleep. While the general consensus in the medical community was that allowing dogs and cats in the bedroom is always a risk – especially for folks with sleep disorders – the study pointed out that 41% of respondents believed that having a pet in the bedroom leads to better sleep, whereas 20% of the respondents reported sleep disturbances because of pets. In other words, certain categories of people feel more cozy and secure when they sleep with their pet.

Jack Woodall, PhD (John Payne Woodall) 1935 – 2016, a viral epidemiologist, scientist and visiting Professor and Director (retd.) Nucleus for the Investigation of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Institute of Medical Biochemistry, Center for Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has died after a valiant battle with pancreatic cancer.

Terrestrial mammals are experiencing a massive collapse in their population sizes and geographical ranges around the world, but many of the drivers, patterns and consequences of this decline remain poorly understood. Here we provide an analysis showing that bushmeat hunting for mostly food and medicinal products is driving a global crisis whereby 301 terrestrial mammal species are threatened with extinction. Nearly all of these threatened species occur in developing countries where major coexisting threats include deforestation, agricultural expansion, human encroachment and competition with livestock. The unrelenting decline of mammals suggests many vital ecological and socio-economic services that these species provide will be lost, potentially changing ecosystems irrevocably. We discuss options and current obstacles to achieving effective conservation, alongside consequences of failure to stem such anthropogenic mammalian extirpation. We propose a multi-pronged conservation strategy to help save threatened mammals from immediate extinction and avoid a collapse of food security for hundreds of millions of people.

Prof. Itamar Grotto, MD, MPH, PhD, a physician and recently appointed associate Director General of the State of Israel’s Ministry of Health accepted serving as Israel’s “One Health Day” Country Ambassador on October 16, 2016.  A longstanding One Health supporter/advocate, Dr. Grotto and several physician and veterinarian colleagues from Israel collaborated to write an important One Health article in the landmark 2009 MONOGRAPH in Veterinaria Italiana "One Health - One Medicine": linking human, animal and environmental health.

As the rutting season for the planet’s lone surviving herd of Key deer got underway on Big Pine in late August, staff at the national refuge that manages the toy-sized animals started to notice something strange: the bucks, often wounded on the head and neck during the mating ritual, were turning up with gaping, festering wounds.

The numbers, and gory injuries, only worsened as the season deepened, leading staff to wonder what new peril faced a fragile herd threatened daily by speeding motorists, dogs and South Florida’s relentless development.

The 15th anniversary of September 11 honored the far-too-many who lost their lives that horrific day. Almost unnoticed was the 15th anniversary of the U.S. anthrax attacks that occurred soon thereafter and left 5 dead, 17 infected and more than 10,000 at risk of exposure. The magnitude of those attacks clarified the need to address bioterrorism more comprehensively in the United States.

The tick hunter was hopeful he had found the cause of the disabling illness, recently named Lyme disease, that was spreading anxiety through leafy communities east of New York City. At a government lab in Montana, Willy Burgdorfer typed a letter to a colleague, reporting that blood from Lyme patients showed “very strong reactions” on a test for an obscure, tick-borne bacterium. He called it the “Swiss Agent.”

My daughter has struggled with a Bartonella infection for nine years, so I feel compelled to challenge the “ignorance is bliss” message Elizabeth Licorish delivered in "Please don't freak out about Cat Scratch Disease." Drama is never an apt response, but knowing the potential consequences of a Bartonella infection and taking precautions is advisable.

With the rise of Zika virus in the United States, many people are concerned not just about the risk of human infection, but also the possibility of animals being infected as well. Can pets get Zika? Can they carry it within their bodies and pass it on to humans?

Officials in at least two African countries are warning the public against consuming certain animals due to the risk of the serious and potentially lethal bacterial disease, anthrax.

In Nigeria's north-central Jigawa state, the Jigawa Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources is warning people not to consume meat slaughtered in the recognized abattoirs in the state due to anthrax.

One Health is a very old concept being resurrected in the past 15 years to encourage awareness of the inextricable interconnectedness between humans, animals and the environment. The One Health Commission, a non-profit organization, supports One Health Action Teams that identify and try to address gaps in awareness and education about issues that fall at the intersection of these sectors. One example is the Bat Rabies Education Team (BRET) which promotes a critical message to prevent the spread of Rabies in the Americas: Never Touch a Bat. Educational posters have been developed in partnership with the Global Alliance for Rabies Control and Bat Conservation International (in English, Portuguese and Spanish) and are available free for anyone to download and print for educational purposes.

More than 250 global food and health leaders representing the public and private sector gathered in Washington, D.C. this week at the One Health Summit, and declared priorities to help combat antimicrobial resistance as part of efforts to produce a sustainable food supply.

Summary Video can be found here. 

This conference convened One Health leaders from the One Health Commission, One Health Initiative, One Health Platform, One Health Romania and other One Health stakeholders from around the world.  The One Health Commission called for a Global One Health Alliance.

In September 2016, the United Nations General Assembly agreed that antimicrobial resistance threatened global health and recognized that a One Health approach was essential. One Health is called for four times in the document in items 8, 10, 12a and 12e.

World leaders today signalled an unprecedented level of attention to curb the spread of infections that are resistant to antimicrobial medicines. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) happens when bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi develop resistance against medicines that were previously able to cure them.

Zika, dengue, chikungunya: As if there weren't enough mosquito-borne viruses to worry about, researchers say another has been spotted for the first time in Haiti. Blood test results revealed that an 8-year-old boy living in a rural area of the Caribbean country has contracted Mayaro virus. The infection was diagnosed after the boy developed a fever and belly pain, the researchers said.

Day 1   https://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=19928&bhcp=1
Day 2   https://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=19932&bhcp=1

Washington, D.C., U.S.A. Teleconference (Listen-only) and live webcast.  With participation of Member States, non-governmental organizations, civil society, the private sector and academic institutions, the primary objective of this pubic meeting is to summon and maintain strong national, regional and international political commitment in addressing antimicrobial resistance comprehensively and multi-sectorally, and to increase and improve awareness of antimicrobial resistance. 

Science Friday podcast interview with Laura Kahn about antimicrobial resistance and the environment.

Dr. Laura Kahn interview on NPR's Science Friday with Ira Glass

Norway is the only country to have implemented a "search and destroy" strategy against LA-MRSA among pig herds to date. A study of the strategy's effect shows that pig farm workers are the principal source of infection among Norwegian herds, a transmission route that was previously unidentified

The importance of veterinary biomedical research was fully evident at the 2016 Merial–National Institutes of Health National Veterinary Scholars Symposium, which took place July 28-31 at The Ohio State University. This year’s theme, “Transdisciplinary Approaches to Health and Wellness,” highlighted a number of one-health research topics, including infectious diseases, translational oncology, and regenerative medicine. 

Dr. Ab Osterhaus, a professor of virology at Erasmus University and Utrecht University, both in the Netherlands, gave the keynote presentation, “Combatting Emerging Viruses: One Health Approach.” A leading authority on zoonotic diseases, Dr. Osterhaus and his team at the Erasmus University Medical Center Viroscience Laboratory reacted quickly after the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak of 2003 when—in a collaborative effort with the World Health Organization—they determined that a coronavirus was the causative agent. Earlier, in 1997, Dr. Osterhaus and his team found that the H5N1 avian influenza virus could be transmitted to humans.

We live in a complex and dynamic world. Many problems we face today involve interdependent structures, multiple actors, and are at least partly the result of past actions. Such problems are extremely difficult to tackle and conventional solutions have very often led to unintended consequences.

A systems thinking approach focuses on systems as a whole: how the parts interrelate and how interconnections create emerging patterns. Systems thinking tools allow us to map and explore dynamic complexity. With a better understanding of systems, we can identify leverage points that lead to desired outcomes and avoid unintended consequences. Environmental problems are often described as “wicked problems” to highlight their complexity and the difficulties they entail. Finding answers to current crises such as fisheries collapse, climate change, biodiversity loss, infectious diseases, and inequitable access to resources will be amongst the greatest challenges of our time. The ecosystem approach applies systems thinking to gain a better understanding of how ecosystems function. It can help us identify potential solutions to a myriad of problems inspired in part by the complex dynamics of ecosystems themselves.

On 21 September 2016, the President of the UN General Assembly convenes an one-day high-level meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York on “Antimicrobial Resistance“, with the participation of Member States, non-governmental organizations, civil society, the private sector and academic institutions, in order to provide input.

The primary objective of the meeting is to summon and maintain strong national, regional and international political commitment in addressing antimicrobial resistance comprehensively and multi-sectorally, and to increase and improve awareness of antimicrobial resistance.

Join Abt Associates and distinguished speakers for a discussion on the causes and consequences of infectious disease pandemics.

In September 2001, I was entering the Master’s degree program in public policy at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. I had already earned MD and MPH degrees but felt that a policy degree would enable me to rise higher in government and have a greater influence on public health policy.  I had been working in patient safety and hospital quality oversight at the New Jersey state health department. The work was important but hamstrung by politics.

My plans were turned upside down by the terrorist attacks of September 11th and the subsequent anthrax letter mailings in October of that year.  I decided to dedicate my career to bioterrorism, emerging diseases, and emergency preparedness instead. 

Over 120 countries are still affected by canine rabies. It kills someone every 9 minutes, mostly ages <15 years. It doesn’t have to be this way. The world has the tools to End Rabies and protect both dogs and people.

Join Abt Associates and distinguished speakers for a discussion on the causes and consequences of infectious disease pandemics in Washington, DC as the fifth event in their Bold Thinkers series.

On 21 September 2016, the President of the UN General Assembly convenes an one-day high-level meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York on “Antimicrobial Resistance“, with the participation of Member States, non-governmental organizations, civil society, the private sector and academic institutions, in order to provide input.

The primary objective of the meeting is to summon and maintain strong national, regional and international political commitment in addressing antimicrobial resistance comprehensively and multi-sectorally, and to increase and improve awareness of antimicrobial resistance.

Bernadette Dunham discussed interconnections of human and animal health with environmental health. She explained that no one discipline or sector of society has enough knowledge and resources to prevent the emergence or resurgence of diseases in today's globalized world. This "One Health" concept is a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals, and the environment.

Become familiar with One Health, a promising concept, and the effective solutions it provides to urgent health problems

In One Health and the Politics of Antimicrobial Resistance, Dr. Kahn investigates the use of antibiotics and the surge in antimicrobial resistance in food animals and humans from a One Health perspective. Although the medical community has blamed the problem on agricultural practices, the agricultural community insists that antibiotic resistance is the result of indiscriminate use of antibiotics in human medicine. Dr. Kahn argues that this blame game has fueled the politics of antibiotic resistance and hindered the development of effective policies to address the worsening crisis. Her discoveries while conducting research for this data-driven book will surprise you.  Note: recordings of two OHC-hosted webinars on this topic by Dr. Kahn are available. July 6  July 13

One Health for Action: Integrating Human, Animal, and Environmental Health  

D. A. Henderson, MD, MPH https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Henderson, the great American physician who directed the eradication of small pox in the 20^th century and a strong supporter/advocate of the One Health concept, died August 19, 2016.  

Dr. Henderson served on the One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono team’s (OHI) Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php.  Early in the development of the OHI’s campaign to promote the One Health approach to worldwide public health and clinical health (comparative medicine), Henderson expressed strong support and encouragement.

Antimicrobial resistance is a globally recognized issue; therefore, efforts to combat this problem have been initiated by international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) as well as national antibiotic action plans in the United States, the European Union, and other countries. Many associations, stakeholders and professional societies have made commitments to fulfilling various components of these plans to combat antimicrobial resistance.

Marie couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. A 65-year-old widow, she had bouts of severe depression that had seized her physical energy and rendered her incapable of functioning normally on a daily basis. But according to Marie, adopting Slinky the Chihuahua completely changed her life.

“After I adopted my dog, my life had a focus again. I used to dread getting out of bed and facing the world. Now I take care of my little guy and walk him each day. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

Researchers of coronaviruses discovered that camels are the source of one of the four common cold coronaviruses, "HCoV-229E­."Camels were already known to be the source of the severe and often fatal Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. Previous MERS studies led to the link between camels and HCoV-229E.

Researchers focus on eradicating sand flies the transmit the disease since medical treatment is impractical. 

You might expect a disease that can kill 95 percent of its victims would be on everyone’s radar. But in the case of visceral leishmaniasis, that’s not the case.

The USDA Secretary's Advisory Committee on Animal Health has scheduled a public meeting for September 7 and 8, 2016 in Washington, DC - Tentative topics for discussion at the meeting include: "... Human infections with Salmonella associated with contact with live poultry; Emerging diseases implementation guide; Emerging disease response; Comprehensive integrated animal health surveillance; VS stakeholder engagement; Foot and mouth disease vaccine availability; National bio and agro-defense facility update and request for input on process for identifying stakeholder priorities; How to maximize effectiveness of the committee; and Potential agenda items for the 2016-2018 committee term ..." - The Committee advises the Secretary of Agriculture on "... matters of animal health, including means to prevent, conduct surveillance on, monitor, control, or eradicate animal diseases of national importance ..." - Members of the public may also join the meeting via teleconference in 'listen-only' mode.

The patient was rushed into the room, listless, intermittently trying to lift his head only to fall back down. Soon, he became unresponsive and cold. I placed the ultrasound probe on his chest and saw a barely contracting heart—heart failure. A massive clot filled the left atrium. The team became silent, then quickly regained its composure, and the supervising doctor began disbursing orders in rapid fire. We stabilized the patient, though he remained in serious condition, and then we shifted to research mode. We emailed doctors across the country: “Have you seen acute dilated cardiomyopathy before in similar patients? He is a 3-year-old meerkat.”

Pets might be a source of drug-resistant superbugs, Chinese researchers reported Tuesday. 

They found a pet shop worker infected with a much-feared antibiotic resistant strain of E. coli may have been infected by dogs at his store that carried the same strain.

A large amount of information on the ‘One Health’ concept can be found on this platform, along with details of global level action taken by the OIE and its partners to promote cooperation between the human health and animal health sectors.

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.

“The concept of One Health has been described for millennia – from Hippocrates’ writings circa 400 B.C. to the AVMA website you can read today. Even with the passage of thousands of years, though, certain One Health principles remain constant: As human populations expand geographically, contact between human and domestic and wild animal habitats increases, introducing the risk of exposure of all three populations to new viruses, bacteria and other disease-causing pathogens. One Health, however, addresses not only concerns about diseases that can be communicated between people and animals, but also lifestyle issues (e.g., diet, exercise, impacts of different types of human-animal relationships) and environmental exposures that may affect both. And, as people and animals continue to rely on planet Earth for their sustenance and survival, the impact we have on our environment also increases along the way. This interconnection is why the practice of One Health is so critically important for each of us, particularly those in the medical and public health fields. The AVMA remains engaged in and an advocate for One Health. That cannot change. As veterinarians, we recognize and uphold our duty to promote the health of all species and the varied places in which they live. As an association, the AVMA is committed to helping advance the awareness and understanding of the interdependency of the health of humans and animals and the environments we share. We are committed to One Health.”

At the heart of the research is not the dog, but the question of male human fertility. Repeated tests over more than 70 years have shown a downward trend in male fertility, but there has always been argument about the consistency and accuracy of the findings……. “Why the dog?” said Dr Lea. “Apart from the fact that it is a great population of animals to work with, dogs live in our homes, they sometimes eat the same food, they are exposed to the same environmental contaminants that we are, so the underlying hypothesis is that the dog is really a type of sentinel for human exposure.”

Envision our world as three circles representing people, animals, and the environment. At the moment, these separate shapes only slightly overlap and share a small, happy space nicknamed the"Ray of Hope for the Future." That ray of hope is One Health—a growing movement that envisions a path to planetary health through One Health education and collaborations. With an excited leader at its helm, the One Health Commission is poised to encourage the merging of those three circles into one unified, healthy world.

Tumors that spontaneously develop in pet dogs and other companion animals as a result of normal aging share many characteristics with human cancers, such as histological appearance, tumor genetics, biological behavior, molecular targets, and therapeutic response. They also exhibit acquired resistance, recurrence, and metastasis, similar to human cancers. The Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium was established to provide the infrastructure and resources needed to integrate clinical trials for pets with naturally occurring cancers into the development pathways for new drugs, devices, and imaging techniques for human cancers. However, the cancer research community has not reached agreement concerning the value of these clinical trial data for advancing human cancer research or when and how best to integrate comparative oncology trials within the cancer research continuum. Thus, the Institute of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum, with support from a coalition of sponsors, hosted a workshop held in Washington, DC, on June 8–9, 2015, to examine the rationale and potential for integrating clinical trials for pet patients with naturally occurring cancers into translational cancer research and development. The workshop also highlighted potential opportunities to overcome existing challenges to that integration.

Minnesota has launched a comprehensive and multi-faceted plan to tackle the rise in drug-resistant bacteria and promote antibiotic stewardship. State officials are hoping the effort can break down some of the tension between human and animal health experts regarding antibiotic use and become a model for addressing the emerging public health crisis.

The 5-year plan, released in early July, calls for Minnesota's departments of health and agriculture, along with the Board of Animal Health and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), to work together to promote the judicious use of antibiotics in humans and animals and get a better sense of how antibiotic use is affecting environmental health. The idea of having all four agencies work on the issue is based on the One Health concept, which views the health of humans, animals, and the environment as being inter-connected.

Doctors have responded well to the call to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions. But what about farming? The Dutch have shown that antibiotic use can be slashed in agriculture too. So why isn’t everybody doing it? Tony Sheldon reports

“Dutch healthcare uses the fewest antibiotics in the world,” is the bold and justifiable claim of the Dutch Health Council, the government’s independent scientific advisers. The country has had low use for decades.1 Yet in veterinary medicine the Netherlands, the world’s second largest exporter of agri-food products (after the United States), was, until a few years ago, among the highest users. This mismatch sparked action that saw the country cut antibiotic use in farm animals by nearly 60% from 2007 to 2015.

"Throughout the last few decades, diseases that spill over from animals to humans have been on the rise. What’s behind their increase, and can we do anything to combat these dangerous foes? Join scientists as they investigate the rise of spillover viruses like Zika, Ebola and Nipah, and learn what science can do to anticipate and prevent epidemics around the world."

"Spillover — Zika, Ebola & Beyond is a harrowing drama that follows scientists into the world's hot zones in a search for answers. And it does so while providing much needed scientific context for the most recent Ebola and Zika outbreaks. Battle-hardened health workers and survivors share their untold stories, such as how a courageous band of Nigerians jumped into the breach to stop Ebola from turning into a truly global pandemic."

At least one child has died in Siberia after an outbreak of naturally occurring anthrax, which has been linked to a decades-old reindeer carcass exposed during a heatwave.

Russian officials have said the death of a 12-year-old boy, a member of a reindeer-herding family from the Yamal tundra 1,300 miles north of Moscow, was the first fatality in Siberia linked to the pathogen since 1941. Twenty others have been diagnosed with anthrax, according to CBS.

Ninety people are undergoing hospital checks in remote northern Russia because of an anthrax outbreak that killed a boy on Monday.

Eight people are confirmed as infected with anthrax, a rare but deadly bacterial disease. It is believed to have spread from reindeer.

More than 2,300 reindeer have died in the outbreak, in the Yamalo-Nenets region of Siberia. Reindeer-herding families have been moved out.

Invasive species are not generally considered bioweapons, but a few security experts, including some in the US military, are concerned about the damage they can cause to ecosystems and agriculture. For example, Lawrence Roberge, a professor at Labouré College in Boston, published a paper in Biosafety on the potential for adversaries to deliberately introduce non-native species as biological weapons. The Department of Defense is also concerned about invasive species because they can take over training grounds, erode natural resources, injure soldiers, and damage equipment. According to the US Defense Department’s Natural Resources Program, invasive species cause more than $138 billion in annual damage and management costs.

 Many deadly diseases that afflict humans were originally acquired through contact with animals. New research suggests that pathogens can also jump the species barrier to move from humans to animals. The study shows that green monkeys in The Gambia acquired Staphylococcus aureus from humans.

Will you be attending the AVMA convention next week? Do you want to meet other professionals and students in the veterinary community who share your interest in One Health? 

The One Heath Institute is a center where the knowledge of young interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral teams of professionals (undergraduate and graduate) in their final year of study and at the start of their careers is transformed and are given ability to detect, prevent and respond to infectious diseases.

This does not only include the scientists who are the primary core responders in cases of infectious disease outbreaks, but also the humanities who have important roles to play like bridging the gaps in understanding community culture, beliefs and gender, bridging communication gaps, technology and innovative gaps etc. An advertisement was made and students across eight colleges and schools in Makerere University applied.

In 2015, a mysterious virus, eventually identified as Zika, first appeared in Brazil, flooding clinics with patients. Health care workers and researchers working in Brazil made a startling connection between the increase in prenatal Zika virus infections and the growing number of babies born with microcephaly and other devastating birth defects. The year before, as the world watched in horror, the Ebola virus tore through the heart of West Africa, leaving some 12,000 dead in its wake. The outbreak was historic: ten times worse than all other Ebola outbreaks combined. And beyond the headlines, out of the spotlight, other threats were unfolding at the same time: legions of viruses were continuing their march around the globe, largely unreported. Nipah. Chikungunya. MERS. All are diseases caused by viruses that reside in animals and spill over into humans. Over the last half century, the number of spillover diseases has increased rapidly. What's behind the rise in spillover viruses? What can we do to stop them? And what have we learned from the ultimate containment of Ebola?

Airing August 3, 2016 10 p.m. Eastern, Press Release  Film Website  Film Trailer

Molefi Ramantele, a small-scale livestock farmer who ekes out a living in Botswana's arid scrubland, lost a third of his cattle in the drought that has scorched southern Africa.

"My life is my cattle. I have never seen it so bad...It will take me years to get them back," the 67-year-old said of his livestock, often the main measure of household wealth in rural African economies.

The green slime that washed onto Florida beaches earlier this month marks the eighth time since 2004 that toxic algae have fouled the Sunshine State’s storied coastline.

The algae blooms of 2013 were so severe the event became known as Toxic Summer. And this year’s outbreak has so thoroughly spread through delicate estuaries on both coasts that Florida officials declared a state of emergency in four counties. Toxic sludge has killed fish, shellfish, and at least one manatee and has sickened people who have touched it.

The One Ocean, One Health Research Institute will focus on the growing One Health movement - a collaborative effort among health science professions - to attain optimal health for people, animals and plants in our environment. It is an investment in our Planet, our Oceans, and our Species.

An engineer teamed up with a veterinarian to test a bone cancer drug delivery system in animals bigger than the standard animal model, the mouse. They chose dogs -- mammals closer in size and biology to humans -- with naturally occurring bone cancers, which also are a lot like human bone tumors.

Salmonella traced to backyard flocks and pet chicks and ducklings continues to claim victims, with public health officials now tracking eight outbreaks across 45 states.

Since the outbreaks were reported on June 2, there have been 287 confirmed cases added, bringing the total to 611 people sickened, according to an update this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To mark our shared progress in global development, on July 20 we joined partners to host the White House Summit on Global Development, where President Obama delivered the keynote address. 

It was a day of reflection, inspiration and dialogue about the U.S. Government’s work around the globe. More than 700 development partners gathered to share stories of success and to ignite new partnerships. As USAID Administrator Gayle Smith said, “development is a team sport ... built on vision and belief in our common humanity.”

With tens of thousands of confirmed cases in the Americas, Zika is a growing public health emergency in the Western Hemisphere and beyond.  While we are harnessing all of our available resources to fight Zika here at home and abroad, we are also calling on communities, companies, and civil society to act now to build the global coalition required to beat Zika and the devastating birth defects it causes. 

After responding to emergency zoonotic outbreaks, the importance of One Health Approach has been emphasized worldwide in effectively preventing and controlling these diseases. In order to discover more about this approach within the Viet Nam country context, a discussion was held with FAO Viet Nam’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) core One Health technical staff members (Pawin Padungtod – Senior Technical Coordinator, Nguyen Thuy Hang – One Health Advocacy and Communication Coordinator and Nguyen Phuong Oanh – Operations Officer to talk about their recent One Health assessment mission in Ha Giang and Quang Nam provinces.

"No matter one’s age, race or political affiliation, at least one thing relating to recent current events is indisputable: Stress, grief and sorrow are detrimental to one’s health.

Thankfully, though — especially for those directly impacted by the tragic goings-on in Dallas, Baton Rouge, Minneapolis and last month in Orlando — there’s a temporary antidote for their mental and emotional anguish: so-called “comfort dogs.”"

According to the Arthritis Foundation, over 50 million Americans have arthritis, making it the number one cause of disability in the country. But did you know that humans aren't the only species plagued by this disease?

Just in time for the Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month this July, a new study revealed that arthritis is prevalent in animal kingdom as well.

Three different laboratories at Kansas State University hopped on board for a study that looks at the potential role of amphibians as a host for the spread of infectious diseases.

Yongming Sang, research associate professor of anatomy and physiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is leading the project, which has produced the recently published article in Nature's Scientific Reports, "Expansion of amphibian intronless interferons revises the paradigm for interferon evolution and functional diversity."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today released the Foods and Veterinary Medicine (FVM) Program's Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2016-2025, which outlines goals and objectives for the next 10 years. The FVM program encompasses the Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, and the Center for Veterinary Medicine, as well as the related activities under the Office of Global Regulatory Operations and Policy and the Office of Regulatory Affairs.

The strategic plan is organized under four goals: food safety, nutrition, animal health, and organizational excellence. It is based on the following principles: (1) public health is the first priority, (2) partnerships are the key to success, (3) scientific expertise and research are the foundation of the FVM Program’s work, and (4) the FVM program is committed to operating openly and transparently.

A black, cloud-like mass billows from a cave on a mountainside in Tao Pun, Thailand. The dark shape rises skyward, shifts, and pivots as the sun sets behind the golden spires of a nearby Buddhist monastery and the green rice fields of western Thailand.

It's not smoke emerging from the cave, but Thailand's largest bat colony, embarking on its nightly search for a tasty meal of insects. And just below the mouth of the cave is a team of Thai scientists, waiting to catch some of the bats as they depart.

ANCHORAGE — Gain a few hundred pounds and lie around in bed for months, and you are likely to develop a host of ailments, from diabetes and heart failure to muscle loss, osteoporosis and bedsores.

Unless, that is, you happen to be a bear.

Interferons (IFNs) are key cytokines identified in vertebrates and evolutionary dominance of intronless IFN genes in amniotes is a signature event in IFN evolution. For the first time, we show that the emergence and expansion of intronless IFN genes is evident in amphibians, shown by 24–37 intronless IFN genes in each frog species. Amphibian IFNs represent a molecular complex more complicated than those in other vertebrate species, which revises the established model of IFN evolution to facilitate re-inspection of IFN molecular and functional diversity. We identified these intronless amphibian IFNs and their intron-containing progenitors, and functionally characterized constitutive and inductive expression and antimicrobial roles in infections caused by zoonotic pathogens, such as influenza viruses and Listeria monocytogenes. Amphibians, therefore, may serve as overlooked vectors/hosts for zoonotic pathogens, and the amphibian IFN system provides a model to study IFN evolution in molecular and functional diversity in coping with dramatic environmental changes during terrestrial adaption.

Raging wildfires. Large-scale die-offs of birds and marine mammals.  Invasions by disease-bearing ticks. Houses and water pipes collapsing as permafrost thaws. These occurrences are no longer future scenarios—they have become the daily experience of many people living in the Arctic, which is the fastest-warming region of the world.

These increasingly common events endanger environmental, animal, and human health. Birds and seals may be dying for various reasons—changing climate leading to anomalous or extreme weather events, accumulation of chemical contamination or toxins from mass blooms of algae, or even random chance. Such events should serve as a signpost directing us toward a more collaborative approach to preparedness and response. The list of stakeholders who should assume a role includes doctors, public health officers, and veterinarians as well as departments of environment and wildlife—in fact, everyone concerned about the safety and security of their homes, their families, and their food sources has a role to play. Recognition that these wide-ranging stakeholders need to work together from observation to analysis to response is known as taking a One Health approach.

Sharks have a sixth sense that helps them locate prey in murky ocean waters. They rely on special pores on their heads and snouts, called ampullae of Lorenzini, that can sense electric fields generated when nearby prey move. The pores were first described in 1678, but scientists haven’t been sure how they work. Now, the answer is a bit closer.

The pores, which connect to electrosensing cells, are filled with a mysterious clear jelly. This jelly is a highly efficient proton conductor, researchers report May 13 in Science Advances. In the jelly, positively charged particles move and transmit current.

For years, assistance dogs have been used to detect low blood sugar levels in their diabetic owners and warn of an impending hypoglycemia attack. Scientists have finally figured out how dogs are able to accomplish this feat—an insight that could lead to new medical sensors.

Dogs don’t so much see the world as they do smell it. Our canine companions can detect the tiniest odor concentrations—around one part per trillion. For us, that would be like detecting a teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic sized swimming pools. This allows them to work as medical detection dogs, where they sniff out various forms of cancer and diabetes.

In September 2005, Senior UN System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza David Nabarro made a public statement that bird flu could kill as many as 150 million people. The virus – H5N1 avian influenza – was only spread by birds but was already having a huge impact on people in South East Asia: 55 percent of people hospitalized with this infection since 2003 had died and there was emerging evidence that the virus was spreading further.

The ocean's deadliest predator could be the one, in years to come, that could save your life.

Nova Southeastern University professor Mahmood Shivji has found sharks are genetically more similar to humans than to other sea-going creatures.

A Kalamazoo County resident exposed to a bat is receiving treatment for rabies after the bat tested positive for the disease.

There was a cat, the man at the shelter tells me, who was put in a microwave. The man was furious at his partner for leaving the house to run errands without his permission. Knowing she was half an hour away, he told her that if she did not return home within the next 10 minutes, he would put her beloved cat in the microwave. The feat was impossible – and the resulting punishment and distress hard to imagine.

See also the National Link Coalition's work on the Link between Animal Abuse and Domestic Violence.

"One Health and the Sustainable Development Goals" will be the theme of the 17th Inter-American Ministerial Meeting on Health and Agriculture-RIMSA 17, to be held in Paraguay, 21-22 July 2016. Organized by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)'s Veterinary Public Health Section, based in Rio de Janeiro, this will be a closed meeting of the Ministers of Health and Agriculture.

A forecast published this spring warns that ticks transmitting Lyme disease have expanded their range, increasing the disease risk for dogs in the Midwest. 

Find out more at capcvet.org

U.S. officials have found bacteria resistant to the antibiotic of last resort in a sample from a second pig, increasing concerns about the spread of a newly discovered superbug that initially surfaced in this country in March.

The latest report involves an antibiotic-resistant strain of E. coli from a pig intestine, which was detected by scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a spokeswoman said Monday evening. The E. coli bacteria carried a gene making it resistant to the antibiotic colistin, the drug used against particularly dangerous types of superbugs that can already withstand many other antibiotics.

"Scientists have developed a computer model that predicts outbreaks of zoonotic diseases - those that spread from animals to people - based on changes in climate, population growth, and land practices. They hope the tool will help governments and communities improve their decision-making."

The computer based model developed by researchers at the University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom was tested to predict Lassa fever outbreak in West Africa. It is believed it could be fine-tuned to predict disease spread for a number of other factors and disease spreads within human populations.

In a key event as a part of Johns Hopkins' Centennial celebration, prominent authors and journalists came together to speak about key considerations for the future of public health. In reference to pandemics and the future of public health Sonia Shah said, "Ultimately, the goal is to prevent,” Shah said. How? By restoring wild habitats and protecting the most vulnerable.  By approaching outbreaks holistically, and not just as biomedical phenomena. By re-imagining our relationship to the microbial world."

“There is no us and them,” she insisted. “Our health is connected to the health of society, but also wildlife, livestock and ecosystems. We live in a microbial world.”

Global Environmental Health research addresses pressing environmental health problems and aims to improve the lives of the most vulnerable populations, both in the United States and around the world.

As part of the ambitious Cancer "Moonshot” Initiative  to eliminate cancer, Vice President Joe Biden encouraged collaboration and team science within the field of oncology during a speech at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. He said, "Over the next year, I will lead a dedicated, combined effort by governments, private industry, researchers, physicians, patients, and philanthropies to target investment, coordinate across silos, and increase access to information for everyone in the cancer community. Here’s what that means: The Federal government will do everything it possibly can — through funding, targeted incentives, and increased private-sector coordination — to support research and enable progress. We’ll encourage leading cancer centers to reach unprecedented levels of cooperation, so we can learn more about this terrible disease and how to stop it in its tracks." 

A recent Washington Post story picked up by the Roanoke Times touches on what is a fairly new phrase, though it has long been accepted as a concept: the “One Health” concept

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/.

One Health International Journal Volume 2 published by One Health New Medical Concept Association in Romania. The articles in this issue of "One Health - International Journal" are informative materials that were presented at a scientific session organized by "Dr. Victor Babes" Hospital for Infectious and Tropical Diseases in Bucharest earlier in 2016.

MERS, H1N1, swine flu, chikungunya, Zika: Another virus with a peculiar name always seems to be right around the corner, threatening to become a pandemic.

Over the past decade, the World Health Organization has declared four global health emergencies. Two of them were in the past two years: the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the Zika outbreak that's spread through the Americas.

In a perfect world, all scientific literature would be open access as most research is accomplished with public dollars.  But this isn't the case and it is a huge challenge, a block to our ability to communicate across professions, to making One Health the default way of doing business.  Not only do we never have an opportunity to directly interact with each other across disciplines (example: get CE for attending each other's meeting, etc) , we cannot even read each others' journals without being part of a given discipline / association.  In the old days one could go to a library and read the hard copies of other profession's journals; but in today's digital world and people's limited access to Institutional libraries (and so many of them only taking digital subscriptions now), we are totally locked out of each other's literature.The European Commission has started discussing the need and a new vision in this report. 

Dogs may be more than best friends for military veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a small study suggests.

Researchers found that vets who were given pet dogs showed significant improvement in their PTSD symptoms.

Dogs may be able to sniff out malaria through their acute sense of smell, thereby saving thousands of lives through quick and non-invasive detection, scientists have claimed.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a grant to commission research into the possibility to scientists at Durham University, Medical Detection Dogs and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, along with counterparts in Gambia.

Thirteen species of Indonesian birds, including the country’s symbolic Javan hawk-eagle, are at serious risk of extinction mainly due to the pet trade, a wildlife watchdog warned Wednesday.

The vast Indonesian archipelago is home to a dizzying array of birds and keeping them as pets has long been part of the national culture, with birdcages a common sight outside homes and shops across the country.

Preparing Society to Create the World We Need through One Health Education

"At the 84th General Session of the World Assembly of National Delegates, the OIE presented to its Members, and proposed for adoption, the basic principles of its new strategy to fight antimicrobial resistance. Built on the foundations of many years’ work by the Organisation to protect the effectiveness of antimicrobials used in veterinary medicine, and to contribute towards maintaining the efficacy of the molecules used in human medicine, this strategy aims to provide countries with the necessary tools to assist them in managing this problem more effectively, regardless of their actual animal health situation. "

Activities included the One Health Symposium (see below), the Sunday Gleaner supplement, the Trophy race at Caymanas, a seminar on Antimicrobial Resistance, One Health-related technical presentations at General Meetings and more. Outreach to our non-veterinary colleagues in the health sector was noted.

See JVMA press release

A consultative workshop to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and emerging zoonotic infectious disease (EID) threats was organized by FAO in partnership with the Government of India.  The workshop took place in Kolkata from 20-22 May 2016.   This was a unique platform bringing together over 41 key decision makers from government and institutional stakeholders representing livestock, wildlife, and human health attended the workshop.

The main focus of the workshop was to develop a 3-year programme to mitigate the risk of emergence and spread of viral zoonotic EIDs and AMR.  The project is financially supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

The Jamaica Veterinary Medical Association was selected as the winner of the World Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE’s) World Veterinary Day Award 2016 for its activities related to this year’s theme “Continuing Education with a One Health Focus”. Those activities  included the One Health Symposium (link), the Sunday Gleaner supplement, the JVMA Trophy race at Caymanas, a seminar on Antimicrobial Resistance, One Health-related technical presentations at General Meetings and more. Outreach to colleagues in the human health sector were noted.

A recent Lancet editorial emphasized the need for a well trained medical and public health workforce to ensure global health security and endorsed the Workforce 2030 strategy on human resources for health in hopes that WHO member states will as well at the World Health Assembly.

"Since the recent epidemics of Ebola, MERS, and Zika viruses, the ever-present threat of pandemic influenza, and now the menace of a yellow fever crisis, the notion of global health security has risen to the top of concerns facing the 194 member states attending next week’s 69th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland. Without global health security, the common goal of a more sustainable and resilient society for human health and well being will be unattainable."

"There can be no health security without a skilled health workforce. That is the lesson of Ebola that remains to be learned."

Bernadette Dunham discussed interconnections of human and animal health with environmental health. She explained that no one discipline or sector of society has enough knowledge and resources to prevent the emergence or resurgence of diseases in today's globalized world. This "One Health" concept is a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals, and the environment.

Link to Recording https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=7365

Link to Library of Congress Blog post https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2016/05/one-health-lecture-may-18-dr-bernadette-dunham/
 

"Researchers say they have discovered a rare, severe form of pulmonary hypertension in dogs. Up until this point, it had only been classified as a human lung disease.

The study, which recently appeared in the journal Veterinary Pathology, involved researchers from Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College.

“Our research is the first to document the existence of pulmonary veno-occlusive disease, or PVOD, in dogs,” said Kurt Williams, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVP, the lead author of the study and associate professor of pathology and diagnostic investigation in MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “PVOD is considered one of the most severe forms of pulmonary hypertension.”

On a drizzly March day, Sarah Jovan pauses to inspect a leafless maple growing through a hole in a downtown Portland sidewalk. She passes a slender hand over the miniature ecosystem colonizing its trunk—chartreuse savannahs that stretch between stands of thick, shaggy moss and lone shrubs of fruticose lichen. “These look stressed,” she says of the latter, noting that the pale green epiphytes seem dull and stunted compared to their brethren in the wild.

"New paper suggests researchers who are more open to other disciplines and worldviews produce higher-quality research."

"FRIDAY, May 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Walking the dog may be a health boon for older Americans, new research suggests.

Dog walking helps cut back on excess weight and the overall need to visit a physician while raising overall moderate and vigorous exercise levels among the over-60 set, investigators found.

And the strong emotional bonds formed between owner and pet offer social benefits, encouraging increased contact with other pet owners."

To say that dogs hold a special place in American life is putting it mildly. The U.S. is home to about 70 million pet dogs, who live in more than 40 million of our homes — about one in every three households has a dog. Not only do many people own and care for at least one dog, many of them are absolutely crazy for their canines. We post their pictures on Facebook, sleep with them in our beds, buy them toys and treats, refer to them as “fur babies,” celebrate their birthdays, dress them up for Halloween, and send them to day care. Some of us even subscribe to magazines with names like Dogster and Modern Dog. This year Americans will spend an estimated $60 billion on their pets, and it’s safe to assume that much of that hard-earned money will be spent on our dogs.

"At least 30 percent of antibiotics prescribed in the United States are unnecessary, according to new data published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with Pew Charitable Trusts and other public health and medical experts.

The study analyzed antibiotic use in doctors’ offices and emergency departments throughout the United States. CDC researchers found that most of these unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed for respiratory conditions caused by viruses – including common colds, viral sore throats, bronchitis, and sinus and ear infections – which do not respond to antibiotics. These 47 million excess prescriptions each year put patients at needless risk for allergic reactions or the sometimes deadly diarrhea, Clostridium difficile."

Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef a few years ago, I was overwhelmed by the cartoon-like colors: orange clownfish, blue tangs and green sea turtles set against corals that were purple, bright yellow, rusty red and aqua-blue. 

It was like swimming into a Dr. Seuss book, a fantastical scene that was rich and alive. I saw a giant clam covered in a rough lavender sheen, the orange edges of its shell like smiling lips. Even the branching coral shoots were a striking shade of blue, translucent and almost glowing.

The World Veterinary Day week-long celebrations came to a climax today, Saturday 30th April 2016 at Makerere University Main Hall. The  The World Veterinary Day is celebrated every year on the last Saturday of April. This year's theme is 'Continuing Education with a One Health Focus'. Makerere University was chosen by The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) and the Uganda Veterinary Association (UVA). 

The World Veterinary Day week-long celebrations came to a climax  today, Saturday 30th April 2016 at Makerere University Main Hall. The  The World Veterinary Day is celebrated every year on the last Saturday of April. This year's theme is 'Continuing Education with a One Health Focus'. Makerere University was chosen by The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) and the Uganda Veterinary Association (UVA). 

We celebrate the importance of the One Health concept and approach – that the health of people and animals is intimately connected and people need to communicate and work across many professions for the greater public good.  People benefit from animals through companionship, protection, safe and nutritious food products, work-related and recreational activities, the biodiversity of our wildlife, and research and new knowledge to better our lives.
 

Between April 11th and 15th a multi-disciplinary team of nineteen faculty from OHCEA (One Health Central and East Africa) member institutions and Secretariat staff set out to develop the networks’ draft research agenda and a resource mobilization plan to guide resource mobilization for research projects at a meeting that was held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi Kenya.  The team comprised specialists in public health, veterinary health, gender and health systems strengthening.

Envisioning a world where regular activity, a balanced diet and healthy weight are part of every family’s life, the World Small Animal Veterinary Association One Health Committee and CDC  are partnering on this event planned for November 9-11, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.  This two-day symposium will focus on comparative aspects of human and pet obesity.  For more information visit: https://www.wsava-obesity.com/

Summary

"From 1 January 2007 to 20 April 2016, Zika virus transmission was documented in a total of 66 countries and territories.

Mosquito-borne transmission:  42 countries are experiencing a first outbreak of Zika virus since 2015, with no previous evidence of circulation, and with ongoing transmission by mosquitos.  17 countries have reported evidence of Zika virus transmission prior to 2015, with or without ongoing transmission or have reported an outbreak since 2015 that is now over.

Person-to-person transmission:  Eight countries have now reported evidence of person-to-person transmission of Zika virus, other than mosquito-borne transmission (Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal and the United States of America).

In the week to 20 April, no additional countries have reported mosquito-borne Zika virus transmission. Peru and Portugal are the latest countries to report person-to-person transmission. Microcephaly and other fetal malformations potentially associated with Zika virus infection or suggestive of congenital infection have been reported in six countries (Brazil, Cabo Verde, Colombia, French Polynesia, Martinique and Panama). Two cases, each linked to a stay in Brazil, were detected in Slovenia and the United States of America. A further case, linked to a brief stay in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, was detected in a pregnant woman in the United States of America. In the context of Zika virus circulation, 13 countries and territories worldwide have reported an increased incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and/or laboratory confirmation of a Zika virus infection among GBS cases. Based on a growing body of research, there is scientific consensus that Zika virus is a cause of microcephaly and GBS. The global prevention and control strategy launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Strategic Response Framework encompasses surveillance, response activities and research. This situation report is organized under those headings."

"Abstract: The central mission of the GHW-2030 multi-sectoral think tank is to contribute to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by working toward achieving the education and health goals in cooperation with the Commonwealth Secretariat using an international interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary/transdisciplinary global One Health approach. A major focus of the think tank will be on the health and well-being – physical, emotional, aspirational – of children and young people particularly as these relate to their personal security, physical and emotional well-being, education and employment and the sustainability of life on the planet."

Link to PDF

Excerpt: "Boulder, Colo. — IMAGINE a future in which humanity’s accumulated wisdom about Earth — our vast experience with weather trends, fish spawning and migration patterns, plant pollination and much more — turns increasingly obsolete. As each decade passes, knowledge of Earth’s past becomes progressively less effective as a guide to the future. Civilization enters a dark age in its practical understanding of our planet.

To comprehend how this could occur, picture yourself in our grandchildren’s time, a century hence. Significant global warming has occurred, as scientists predicted. Nature’s longstanding, repeatable patterns — relied on for millenniums by humanity to plan everything from infrastructure to agriculture — are no longer so reliable. Cycles that have been largely unwavering during modern human history are disrupted by substantial changes in temperature and precipitation."

Offline: Planetary health—where next?

Horton, Richard

The Lancet , Volume 387 , Issue 10028 , 1602

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30196-9

Excerpt: "2 years ago, we proposed an idea we called planetary health. Friends jokingly asked when we would be launching intergalactic health. I could see their point. We already had global health. Why planetary health? The globe and the planet—aren't they the same thing? Wait. I love museums. I especially enjoy meandering through rooms replete with ancient artefacts from long-lost civilisations. Seeing the small accoutrements of past lives—cups, vases, remnants of clothes, perfume bottles, jewellery—one is invited to imagine and recreate a past existence. Those communities were every bit as real as our own today. But they vanished, destroyed perhaps by cataclysmic war, natural catastrophe, inept leadership, or simply the slow erosion of a society unable to adapt to changing circumstances. It's hard not to think about our own contingency when one walks through these rooms of distant cultures. In a “manifesto” to address the sustainability of today's civilisations, we argued that planetary health stood for a broader attitude to health than we are usually given to consider in medicine."

Excerpt: "

WHO, partners and affected countries are stepping up planning for how to use an Ebola vaccine in response to an outbreak.

The Ebola outbreak that struck Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in 2014 prompted the search, on an exceptionally accelerated schedule, for a vaccine to prevent the disease.

Although there has been more than one promising candidate, the vesicular stomatitis virus-ebola virus (VSV-EBOV) vaccine was selected based on an algorithm produced by the WHO Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee on Ebola Experimental Interventions for the critical Phase III trial in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The committee considered various parameters, including efficacy in non-human primates the ability to provoke an immune response in humans in the early days after vaccination, and availability."

Excerpt: "Several dogs in Flint have tested positive for lead during three recent screenings by Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Daniel Langlois, assistant professor with MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine, said 14 of more than 170 dogs tested showed lead in their blood during the free screenings being primarily funded through gift funds.

Of those 14 dogs, Langlois said 10 showed levels suggestive of recent or low-level exposure to lead -- 25-45 part per billion -- while four tested positive above the reportable limit of 50 ppb and reported to the state."

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. EDT to conduct oversight of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The hearing will be webcast live on the committee’s website, and an archived video will be available shortly after the hearing is complete. Witness testimony will be available on the website at the start of the hearing.

One Health mentioned during U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Dogs, and particularly purebred dogs, also suffer from many other diseases that are high on the list of human health concerns: epilepsy, allergies, cataracts, and heart disease, not to mention bleeding disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and dementia. Dogs aren’t just living alongside us; they are suffering with the very same diseases and frequently dying like us, too. That dogs and humans have many shared health problems might not sound like good news, but it does present an opportunity for improving the health and health care of both species.

"Climate change will contribute to a wide array of public health issues in the United States in the coming decades, including everything from the spread of vector borne illness to the diminished nutritional content of food, according to a new White House report.

The report, the product of a three-year collaboration between a number of federal agencies, suggests that extreme heat alone will drive more than 11,000 additional deaths in the summer of 2030 and 27,000 additional deaths in the summer of 2100, barring an accelerated effort to address climate change."

"Obama Administration Releases Scientific Assessment on Impact of Climate Change to Human Health in the United States

Today, delivering on another commitment in the President’s Climate Action Plan, the Obama Administration released a new final report called The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, which significantly advances what we know about the impacts of climate change on public health, and the confidence with which we know it."

Three leading international One Health groups, the One Health Commission, the One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono Team, and the One Health Platform Foundation are partnering to create a global “One Health Day”. 

This study, published by the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) a One Health Commission sponsor, was the first to explore the long-term effects of acquiring a pet dog for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders. They found a reduction in parental stress in a number of domains.

The International Veterinary Students' Association (IVSA), Standing Committee on One Health (SCOH) have just launched a new page created by students for the benefit of all. This is the latest in initiative by the committee to better disseminate information. Toolkit, journals and much more can be found on the website. If you have any ideas on how to better it, please feel free to contact IVSA or SCOH through the Facebook page, as One Health is an ever evolving movement so will the new website.

Link to website for the Standing Committee on One Health

Link to website for International Veterinary Students' Association

Key findings on who gets sick and why from the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium are being shared at One Health for the Real World: zoonoses, ecosystems and wellbeing, a high-level international symposium taking place at the Zoological Society of London this week.

"A new foundation launches today with the ambition to reform the global food system, enabling us to feed a growing global population with healthy food from a healthy planet."

Eric wasn’t happy with his life. He worked too much, had few friends, was overweight and suffered from Type 2 Diabetes. After a plane incident Eric wanted to change his life. On advice from a nutritionist he adopted a shelter dog named Peety. He wanted someone just like him, fat and middle aged, but wasn’t sure how a dog would help him change his life. On the adoption day, Eric saved Peety’s life, but within just six months, the dog returned the favor. Here’s what happened.

"U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has introduced legislation that would establish a coordinated national plan to fight diseases that come from animal sources, including Zika and Ebola.

The One Health Act of 2016 would charge the nation's agencies—from the Centers for Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)—to work together on identifying specific goals and priorities to help understand, prevent, and respond to animal disease outbreaks."

The One Health Inter-professional Education Initiative seeks to integrate One Health concepts into the degree programs of health professions students through the case study method of instruction. To accomplish this goal the AAVMC in collaboration with the APTR), convened a Working Group and the Healthy People Curriculum Task Force (HPCTF). The Working Group has developed a broad-based One Health Educational Framework designed for use in all health professions education. The One Health Case Study project aimed to engage faculty in developing inter-professional teaching cases as well as case studies specific to an individual field of study.15 case studies were selected for publication and teaching and their teaching materials are free to download.

The main message emerging from this new comprehensive global assessment is that premature death and disease can be prevented through healthier environments – and to a significant degree.

"A growing body of scientific evidence shows that the felling of tropical forests creates optimal conditions for the spread of mosquito-borne scourges, including malaria and dengue. Primates and other animals are also spreading disease from cleared forests to people."

The Knights Landing One Health Clinic has been recognized with a Clinical and Translational Science Award One Health Alliance One Health In-a-Minute Program award. The clinic is held on the third Sunday of each month at the Knights Landing Community Center. Knights Landing One Health Clinic Vet Med funds are grant-based and only for the KL community members with proof of residence. In being selected for this honor, the clinic will have the funds and support to develop a professional video and accompanying manuscript for human medicine journals that will showcase a compelling One Health story illustrating synergy between the veterinary and other scientific communities.

Laura Kahn from the Program on Science & Global Security of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University is interviewed

Excerpt: "Every few months, it seems, an invasive virus from a distant land attacks the Americas: dengue, chikungunya and, most recently, Zika. But the pathogens that frighten me most are novel strains of avian influenza.

I’d come to see their birthplace. Highly virulent and easily transmissible, these viruses emerge from open-air poultry farms and markets of the kind that stretch across Asia. Thanks to rising demand for chicken and other poultry, they’ve been surfacing at an accelerated clip, causing nearly 150 percent more outbreaks in 2015 than in 2014. And in late 2014, one strain managed to cross the ocean that had previously prevented its spread into the Americas, significantly expanding its reach across the globe.

Novel avian influenza viruses are mongrels, born when the influenza viruses that live harmlessly inside the bodies of wild ducks, geese and other waterfowl mix with those of domesticated animals like the ones at Jiangfeng, especially poultry but also pigs. It’s possible to squelch their emergence. One way is to protect domesticated animals from the excreta of waterfowl, which can spread infection. But no such protections are in effect at markets such as Jiangfeng, which, like the rest of southern China’s booming poultry industry, lies within the East Asian flyway, one of the world’s most important waterbird migration routes."

"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."

"An unexpected bond between damaged birds and traumatized veterans could reveal surprising insights into animal intelligence" by Charles Siebert

(CNN)The Zika virus is "is now spreading explosively" in the Americas, the head of the World Health Organization said Thursday, with another official estimating between 3 million to 4 million infections in the region over a 12-month period.

"The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty," Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO's director-general, told her organization's executive board members. "We need to get some answers quickly."

"The Zika virus (ZIKV), a flavivirus related to yellow fever, dengue, West Nile, and Japanese encephalitis, originated in the Zika forest in Uganda and was discovered in a rhesus monkey in 1947. The disease now has “explosive” pandemic potential, with outbreaks in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas.1 Since Brazil reported Zika virus in May 2015, infections have occurred in at least 20 countries in the Americas.2 Puerto Rico reported the first locally transmitted infection in December 2015, but Zika is likely to spread to the United States. The Aedes species mosquito (an aggressive daytime biter) that transmits Zika virus (as well as dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever) occurs worldwide, posing a high risk for global transmission. Modeling anticipates significant international spread by travelers from Brazil to the rest of the Americas, Europe, and Asia.3 What steps are required now to shore up preparedness in the Americas and worldwide?"

Citation: Lucey DR, Gostin LO. The Emerging Zika Pandemic: Enhancing Preparedness. JAMA.Published online January 27, 2016. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.0904.

Excerpt: " The mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to brain damage in thousands of babies in Brazil, is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except for Canada and Chile, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

Zika transmission has not yet been reported in the continental United States, although a woman who fell ill with the virus in Brazil later gave birth to a brain-damaged baby in Hawaii."

Excerpt: "A new study strongly suggests that the domestic dog does indeed recognize and distinguish among different states of mind in humans.  The research demonstrates that dogs use both facial expressions and voice characteristics as cues to a human's state of mind. Its authors underscore that while this ability to detect the mood of another is common enough within the same species, our canine companions appear to be unique in sharing with humans the ability to transcend species boundaries in reading emotions."

Excerpt: "Zika virus, a mosquito-borne infection believed to cause microcephaly in infants born to infected mothers, has crossed from Latin America into Texas, experts reported today.  The case of Zika in a traveler recently returned from El Salvador was confirmed through investigations by Harris County, Texas, health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The case is expected to result in major new surveillance and vector-control initiatives."

A rescued, seemingly healthy bald eagle was found to be suffering from lead poisoning and was euthanized.   Links to hunting with lead in the environment are believed to be the cause, with reports from The United States Humane Society estimating " as many as 20 million wild animals die from lead poisoning every year." 

Excerpt: "Local officials in China have reported six new cases of H5N6 avian flu — commonly referred to as bird flu — in the country, though they say the virus is not currently transmittable through human-to-human contact.  Half of the six cases were reported in the southern province of Guangdong, where three individuals fell ill after coming into contact with live poultry or visiting markets where it was sold, reports the South China Morning Post."