Our health as a species is affected on a daily basis by the health of animals. We live alongside them in our homes, we farm them, help them give birth, hunt them, butcher them, and eat them. We play with them, care for them, and treat their injuries and illnesses. To say we don't live intimately with animals would be a lie. We are closely connected with animals, we inhale their air, our skin touches their blood and sweat, and we consume their flesh and milk. We are one with animals, and our health is one with them.
Some of the most virulent human diseases in recent times have originated from animals. The World Health Organization has estimated that up to 75% of new and emerging diseases are zoonotic (transmitted between animals and people). It's a sobering statistic. One need only look at the devastating consequences of the recent Zika virus, and before that Ebola, West Nile Virus, SARS, Avian Influenza, Mad Cow Disease and a host of others.
We might like to consider that we are safe from animal diseases within our homes and workplaces, and almost exclusively for those of us in modern countries, this is true. Yet, people are not always safe when sharing their lives with animals. Now with an ever mobile society, increased population density, and abundant air travel, we are no longer as geographically isolated from exotic animals. The spread of pandemic disease is as easy as one infected passenger on a long-haul flight. It has become everyone's problem.
Safeguarding public health requires solving mysteries of disease transmission but it requires multidisciplinary knowledge to do so. It was veterinarians who first helped identify diseases like Ebola, West Nile, and Mad Cow. Animal-based models have been providing answers to human health problems for decades and now more collaborative multidisciplinary efforts between human and animal health scientists have enabled application of human surgical procedures to solve animal health issues. It's a vast interconnectedness and working together could help solve complex puzzles of pandemic proportions.
The concept of One Health acknowledges this interconnectedness between human and animal health. It involves utilising the combined expertise of multidisciplinary scientists, including those in the veterinary field, to contribute to the knowledge base around treating and preventing disease. This is a global challenge requiring input from human health, veterinary medicine, environmental scientists, and a host of others like wildlife biologists, entomologists, and biomedical engineers. Advances in food safety, development of vaccines, expanding genetic therapies, and training new veterinary scientists are all part of this new era of awareness within the veterinary field toward One Health.
One Health is being embraced by national and international organisations, universities, veterinary schools and medical schools. With this increased commitment to working together, we will see the application of knowledge between fields and a more efficient progression of disease research and prevention.
The millions of animals seen globally by veterinarians each year are all part of this puzzle and every veterinary professional has the potential to make a significant difference by contributing to this effort. There is no doubt that the veterinary industry is poised to make enormous contributions to world health in the generations to come.
We hope you enjoy this issue.