Introduction:

The World Organization of Animal Health, commonly known as OIE (an abbreviation of its French title), summarizes the One Health concept as “human health and animal health are interdependent and bound to the health of the ecosystems in which they exist”. It is gaining importance as most of the contagious diseases affecting humans are zoonotic (animal to man origin) in nature. The concept of One Health can be effectively implemented for reducing incidence of emerging zoonotic threats like COVID-19.

Body:

The Government of India has recently launched the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-being. The mission aims to explore the neglected links between biodiversity science and human well-being across the sectors of health, economic development, agricultural production and livelihood generation, in combination with efforts to mitigate climate change and related disasters. One of the components of the mission explicitly links biodiversity to human health through the OneHealth framework.

Key facts:

• According to The World Organization of Animal Health, 60% of existing human infectious diseases are zoonotic i.e. they are transmitted from animals to humans; 75% of emerging infectious human diseases have an animal origin.
• Of the five new human diseases appearing every year, three originate in animals.
• 80% biological agents with potential bio-terrorist use are zoonotic pathogens.
• It is estimated that zoonotic diseases account for nearly two billion cases per year resulting in more than two million deaths — more than from HIV/AIDS and diarrhea.
• One-fifth of premature deaths in poor countries are attributed to diseases transmitted from animals to humans.

Significance:

• One Health is the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment, as defined by the One Health Initiative Task Force.
• One Health model facilitates interdisciplinary approach in disease control so as to control emerging and existing zoonotic threats.
• One Health model is a globally accepted model for research on epidemiology, diagnosis and control of zoonotic diseases.
• The WHO is very effectively addressing emerging issues of antimicrobial resistance through One Health research.
• All the developing countries are in the process of promoting One Health research for developing a sustainable disease control system.

Challenges faced: 

• Developing countries like India have much greater stake in strong One Health systems on account of agricultural systems resulting in uncomfortably close proximity of animals and humans.
• The size of India’s human and animal populations is almost the same; 121 crore people (2011 Census) and 125.5 crore livestock and poultry.
• A network of 1.90 lakh health institutions in the government sector form the backbone of health governance, supported by a large number of private facilities.
• On the other hand, only 65,000 veterinary institutions tend to the health needs of 125.5 crore animals; and this includes 28,000 mobile dispensaries and first aid centres with bare minimum facilities.
• Private sector presence in veterinary services is close to being nonexistent.

Way forward:

• There is need for strengthening veterinary institutions and services.
• The most effective and economical approach is to control zoonotic pathogens at their animal source.
• It calls not only for close collaboration at local, regional and global levels among veterinary, health and environmental governance, but also for greater investment in animal health infrastructure.
• This calls for strict health surveillance to incorporate domestic animals, livestock and poultry too.
• Humans require a regular diet of animal protein. Thus, loss of food animals on account of poor health or disease too becomes a public health issue even though there may be no disease transmission, and we lose 20% of our animals this way.
• There could not be a stronger case for reinventing the entire animal husbandry sector to be able to reach every livestock farmer, not only for disease treatment but for prevention and surveillance to minimise the threat to human health.
• Early detection at animal source can prevent disease transmission to humans and introduction of pathogens into the food chain.
• So a robust animal health system is the first and a crucial step in human health.
• Disease surveillance has to go beyond humans and encompass preventive health and hygiene in livestock and poultry, improved standards of animal husbandry for greater food safety, and effective communication protocols between animal and public health systems.

Conclusion:

The frequency with which new pathogens are emerging or old ones are re-emerging across the world are alarm calls for greater transparency, cross-country collaborations, and enhanced national infrastructure and capacity for integrated OneHealth science. The cause of mitigating large-scale human suffering justifies making such a hitherto unprecedented effort.