ONE HEALTH: The interconnectedness of human, nonhuman animal, and environmental health
Forestry clearance for agriculture, humans encroaching on animals' territories due of expanding cities, and increase in wildlife trade due to globalization are all interconnected.
NATHAN FIORITTI: The COVID-19 pandemic probably began with a single transmission of virus from an animal to a human. The tragic consequences highlight the relationship between public, animal and environmental health. There are many ways in which these areas are interconnected, from the overuse of antibiotics on farm animals leaving us more vulnerable to superbugs, to climate change giving diseases new opportunities to spread or the need to maintain balanced and viable ecosystems to protect our health…
Outbreaks like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012 and recurring outbreaks of Ebola, as well as epidemics of influenza and concerns for food safety, have led to greater cross-disciplinary collaboration. SARS and MERS, like COVID-19, are zoonotic diseases—infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans. Both originated in bats, with SARS passing from civet cats to humans, and MERS from camels to humans. It’s currently thought that COVID-19 also originated in bats and passed to humans through another animal, but it is not yet known which animal served as the intermediary…
Dr. Richard Bradhurst, a Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis, develops epidemiological models to address the spread and control of disease in livestock. The centerpiece of his work is the Australian Animal Disease Spread model (AADIS), developed with the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. AADIS has been used to study foot-and-mouth disease, invasive environmental pests and insect vector-borne viruses and is being adapted for African swine fever…
Professor John Fazakerley, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences and Professor of Virology at the Doherty Institute, researches infectious diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks. “When we have heavy rains, which we’re going to have more frequently as adverse weather events increase with our changing climate, we will have more floods and higher mosquito populations,” says Professor Fazakerley. “Large mosquito populations in South Eastern Australia generally result in increased cases of Ross River fever, because mosquitoes spread the virus from kangaroos and wallabies.”
This shows how environmental changes can contribute to disease spread… “Climate change and forestry clearance for agriculture are causes of that, but humans are also encroaching on animals’ territories because cities are ever-expanding.” Another important factor is globalization and the resulting increase in trade. The spread of the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), has contributed to the transmission of diseases from animals to humans, including dengue fever and chikungunya…
“We’d be well advised to understand these diseases, what the ecosystem drivers of their emergence or re-emergence are, where they are most likely to come from, how they are transmitted and how they can be prevented,” says Professor Fazakerley… “There may be even greater consequences if scientists and policymakers do not have a holistic outlook that takes into account human, animal and plant health, and the environment”. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: