One Health News

Center for One Health & the Environment

See more complete information at https://sbe.umaine.edu/school/center-for-one-health-the-environment/

and https://sbe.umaine.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/92/2015/10/2014-EM-Res-Groden_et_al1.pdf

School of Biology and Ecology

A new interdisciplinary Center for One Health & the Environment at the University of Maine builds on current strengths, and is focused on climate change and emerging issues in animal, plant, and human health.

Our natural and managed ecosystems are and will increasingly be subject to regional and global pressures of climate and ecosystem change, which have serious consequences for public and ecosystem health and the health of the animals and plants that our social and economic systems depend on. Climate change already affects all major sectors and constituencies within the state of Maine with resulting economic consequences of animal, plant, and human health issues that are far-reaching in scale and scope.

Why “One Health and the Environment”?

Central to the One Health concept is the understanding that human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health are “inextricably linked”, and addressing the connections between health of all species and the environment is essential for the health of all organisms.

At the University of Maine, we are particularly well positioned to contribute to and to be recognized for a One Health & the Environment focus in research and educational programs.

• We have a depth of expertise in ecological and environmental sciences, and an internationally recognized research institute focusing on climate change (Climate Change Institute), the largest threat of our time to animal, human, and ecosystem health.
• We have faculty conducting biomedical research with model organisms such as zebrafish, which directly translates and contributes to our understanding of susceptibility and disease development and manifestations across organisms, whether fish, cows, moose, or humans.
• We have a research and cooperative extension animal diagnostic laboratory (UMAHL) with a focus on health of domestic animals and wildlife and zoonosis (diseases passed between animals and humans), and we have faculty investigating the movement of animal carriers of disease.
• We have an Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI) investigating a variety of links between temperature warming, coastal pollution, invasive species, and the interactions of these factors on shell- and fin-fish growth, reproduction, and health.
• We have faculty investigating potential and current water-borne and food-borne pathogens and faculty studying the spread of aquatic and terrestrial invasive species that threaten natural and agricultural systems.
• In summary, we have many faculty investigating the impacts of climate and other exacerbating environmental stresses (toxicants, invasive insects, pathogens, and parasites) on fish, wildlife, plants, domestic animals, and humans, at the population, organism, cellular, and molecular level.
• Additionally, we have social scientists who focus their research and teaching on environmental and health economics and policy, measuring the negative economic impacts of a changing health landscape, determining the economic benefits and costs of adopting climate-change adaptation and resilience policies, examining and evaluating alternative financing and risk-management policies, and assisting in developing health communication strategies to help people adjust their behaviors to these emerging health risks.

Hence, the phrase One Health, Many Organisms captures the breadth that we bring to the One Health & the Environment concept; we develop and evaluate environmental and health management strategies and policies to solve the myriad of plant, animal, and human health and economic issues that arise as our climate and ecosystems change.

Expected impacts:

• Strongly synergize research activities in climate and ecosystem change, infectious diseases, and public health between existing and new faculty, creating a productive, nationally competitive, interdisciplinary team addressing local and global concerns.
• Expand current service to Maine agencies, healthcare facilities, and industries with collaborative projects and outreach (Maine CDC, Board of Pesticide Control, Vector Mgmt. Programs, Maine Public Health Assoc., Maine Hospital Association, Maine Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation, Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife)
• Strengthen existing high-demand undergraduate and graduate programs in health sciences and policy (zoology, pre-med, pre-vet, & other pre-professional health programs, nursing, microbiology, GSBSE, SPIA-Internat’l Development)
• Establish new undergraduate and graduate programs in public health, conservation medicine, and health policy and management allowing the University of Maine to evolve to meet the interests and needs of society and students into the future.
• Provide students with internships in public policy, infectious disease methods, zoonotic disease investigational methods, control/prevention techniques, etc.
• Achieve accreditation status for the proposed BSL3 animal/plant diagnostic lab.
• Expand Maine’s strength in applied research in zoonotic diseases and their public health implications.

Links to participating units and further background:

• Emerging Signature Proposals Approved as new emerging area in UMaine Signature Area of Climate Change:
  • Emerging Research Area: Changing Ecosystems and Climate: Impact on Animal, Plant, & Human Health
  • Emerging Educational Area: Changing Ecosystems and Climate: Impact on Animal, Plant, & Human Health
  • School of Biology and Ecology
  • School of Economics
  • School of Food Agriculture
  • Climate Change Institute
  • University of Maine Animal Health Laboratory
  • Aquaculture Research Institute
  • Graduate School for Biomedical Science and Engineering
  • Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology
  • Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences

One Health includes Comparative Medicine

                   …see One Health Umbrella http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/OneHealth2

The Answer to Cancer Might Be Walking Beside Us

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raif_9STMYM&feature=youtu.be

Published on May 31, 2017

Colorado State University and Rocky Mountain PBS teamed up to produce a new documentary featuring researchers and clinicians across the country who all have one common goal: One cure for cancer in people and animals.

“…PBS Documentary Heralds Progress, Promise of Comparative Oncology [Cancer]

Perhaps some of the greatest progress to come in the war on cancer will rise from the burgeoning field of comparative oncology, where physicians and veterinarians are battling the disease side-by-side. Some of the remarkable advancements achieved and tantalizing prospects ahead are explored in a compelling half-hour video airing nationally on public television stations this spring and summer. ...”

Note: The program began airing on national public television stations through 42 stations affiliated with the National Educational Telecommunications Association on April 7. The documentary began airing through 33 stations with The Programming Service for Public Television in June.

Editor’s note: This 26:48 minute film is a powerful message to political leaders, the international health care communities and the general public!

Experienced Texas A & M University (USA) One Health Professor Enhances a Dynamic One Health Program

Since 2015, Rosina (Tammi) C. Krecek, FRSSAf, BS, MS, PhD, MAP, MBA has been Research Professor of Global One Health and Interim Assistant Dean of One Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM), Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas (USA).  Dr. Krecek works within a dynamic, expanding One Health program under the auspices of an extraordinary CVM Dean, Dr. Eleanor M. Green [DVM, DACVIM, DABVP] http://vetmed.tamu.edu/about-us/dean.  One recent dramatic example of the visionary One Health TAMU activities was demonstrated with a Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at The Bush School of Government and Public Service report entitled “The Growing Threat of Pandemics: Enhancing Domestic and International Biosecurity - March 2017” https://goo.gl/y9pXo6.  

Krecek has more than 30 years international experience at building sustainable One Health research, education and outreach programs in Africa, the Caribbean and the USA.  Her focus has been a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach for diagnosis and interventions to prevent and manage zoonotic parasitic and infectious diseases which impact resource-poor communities. She established a successful international agricultural consultancy in Sub-Saharan Africa, which addresses societal issues through novel One Health solutions. Two of her overall strengths are establishing international sustainable strategic partnerships, and leading teams to successfully achieve their goals.

In 2005, she was recruited as Associate Dean for Research, and Professor of Parasitology at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine on St. Kitts to create a research program which was completely lacking.  Krecek established and led a credible and sustainable research program with a One Health focus endorsed by all global, international, national, regional, and island stakeholders (i.e., World Association for Animal Health (OIE), World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), etc.) Under her research and administrative leadership Ross established a One Health research program with several “firsts”: a Memorandum of Understanding signed between St. Kitts-Nevis Ministries of Agriculture and Human Health and Ross, which strengthened partnerships across diverse disciplines; developed a strategic plan and attracted comprehensive institutional funding to build research and animal facilities, develop operating policies and attract research faculty to support the One Health approach; established the Ross graduate program which was awarded accreditation from the St. Kitts-Nevis Ministry of Education; and awarded funding for the Ross Merial Veterinary Scholars Program. In 2011, as a result of this 6-year strategic effort, Ross achieved accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education (AVMA COE) and was awarded a full 7-year accreditation, becoming the first veterinary school in the Caribbean and the 5th foreign school to achieve this global benchmark.

Leading strategic partnerships and working critically in team efforts are proven strengths, as evidenced by the awarding of a 2015 U.S. Department of Homeland Security contract for a novel collaborative multidisciplinary training program. This “Bench to Shop” program (http://vetmed.tamu.edu/benchtoshop) develops an international curriculum for next generation scientists to take bench discoveries for high consequence transboundary diseases to commercialization.

Significant achievements during Krecek’s tenure as Interim Assistant Dean of One Health at Texas A&M held since 2015 have advanced the One Health initiative to the next level (http://onehealth.tamu.edu). This includes 3 recent grant awards for the establishment of new interdisciplinary programs (e.g., comparative genomics of agricultural, animal, human pests and microbes; porcine cysticercosis biosafety and biosecurity international training initiatives including 21 countries, etc.) with several awarded. A critical process has been to compile performance metrics for campus-wide One Health research, demonstrating positive outcomes in various research, education and outreach programs.

Krecek currently serves with distinction on the One Health Commission’s Board of Directors https://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/leadership__board_of_directors/.

George Washington University

GW One Health Team Wins in One Health Day Student Competition

https://smhs.gwu.edu/news/gw-one-health-team-wins-one-health-day-student-competition

GW One Health team members, Mallory Epting, Jeffrey Jacob, and Laura Venner with their mentor, *Bernadette Dunham, DVM, PhD

*Dr. Dunham is a member of the One Health Initiative Team’s Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php.

Ashley Rizzardo

June 5, 2017

Congratulations to the students in the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) and Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken SPH) on the GW One Health team. The team, including second-year medical student Jeffrey Jacob and Milken SPH students Mallory Epting, Emma Sullivan, and Laura Venner, finished among the winning teams at the One Health Day competition.

The One Health Initiative aims to bring together people from many different scientific-health backgrounds to explore collaborations in the realms of human, animal, and environmental health. “Many diseases are transmitted between humans and animals, and occur in the environment. Instead of approaching health alone in one field, these different fields can work together to address health concerns,” Jacob explained.

Each team was required to include a medical student, an ecology/environmental student, a veterinary student, and one non-medical student. Venner first approached Jacob, telling him about the initiative and competition, and asking if he would fill the team’s medical student requirement. Venner’s Milken SPH classmates, Epting and Sullivan, also joined the GW One Health team. The GW team is just one of several university chapters participating in the One Health Initiative, which has a global reach.

For the competition, teams were required to host One Health Day events at their universities to raise awareness throughout their communities, and then submit write-ups detailing their events. GW One Health took the task and ran. Rather than host the single One Health Day event, the GW team organized a week-long speaker series that took place during the lunch hour each day, alternating between SMHS and Milken SPH locations. The speakers highlighted their research and related it to the One Health Initiative goals.

On the final day, the team hosted a panel discussion with four new speakers who discussed their research and tied it in to the goals of One Health. The GW One Health team also made the decision to live stream the discussion. “I think that’s what sealed it for us,” said Jacob. “We were able to reach a much larger audience that way.” By reaching that audience, the team exercised a big part of the One Health initiative: including people from varying backgrounds.

The teams were then required to submit an abstract discussing what their One Health Day events entailed for review by a committee. GW One Health was one of three teams to come out on top.

For more information about the One Health Initiative, visit http://www.onehealthinitiative.com

The One Health Day Coordinating Team (https://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/eventscalendar/one_health_day/coordinating_team/) comprised of members of the One Health Commission, the One Health Platform Foundation and the One Health Initiative pro bono team was very pleased to have received numerous outstanding entries for the 2016 Student Event Competition. Competing groups had to meet a set of criteria (see Eligibility Criteria) and were required to submit a post-event summary. The International Panel of Judges  was impressed with the work of the One Health Day Student teams, and the decision was challenging.

Congratulations to the Winning Student Teams!

Based on the Student Competition Assessment Criteria

These three 2016 Student Teams  each won a $5,000 prize (alphabetical order):

George Washington University in Washington D.C.

University of California at Davis, California

Washington University at St Louis, Missouri

The Planning Team added two additional  $500 Special Recognition Awards to the teams from:

Makerere University, Uganda

University of Pretoria, South Africa

Please see complete notice of the special One Health Day Student Awards 2016 on the One Health Commission’s webpage. https://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/eventscalendar/one_health_day/student_awards_2016/

SEE http://wvc2017korea.com/

University of Washington - Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences

Center for One Health Research Blog

One Health and Planetary Health

• See complete article in link: http://deohs.washington.edu/cohr/blog/2017/15/one-health-and-planetary-health
• In 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation released a major report about the state of the planet, called Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch. This document outlines the case that anthropogenic changes in the environment are now threatening the basic life support services of the earth’s systems. Some of the concerning trends include biodiversity loss, climate change, particulate air pollution, ocean acidification, and deforestation. The report indicates a number of ways that this environmental degradation can pose a serious threat to human health in the future, and calls for urgent research and policy action to address these large-scale problems.
• At the Center for One Health Research (COHR), we view these critical environmental threats highlighted by the Rockefeller Planetary Health Report as intrinsic to our understanding and application of One Health.
• The COHR approach to One Health is to look at the interconnections between hierarchically organized systems of human, animal, and environmental health, as depicted in this figure.
• SEE FIGURE provided in link.
• Each domain of health: human, animal, and environment, can be seen as a system of increasing complexity, from the molecular level, up to the individual level, and higher to the community, and finally “planetary” level where global populations of humans and animals are interacting with biosphere forces, as detailed in the Planetary Health report.
• The utility of the One Health approach to planetary health is that it shows how interactions at simpler levels, such as emerging infectious diseases in individuals or small populations, can be connected to higher level interactions with environmental drivers such as climate change and deforestation. In the same way, an “animal sentinel event”, such as a sudden stranding of whales or other marine mammals, while sometimes traceable to a proximate cause such as a viral infection or a toxic exposure, may be telling us something about greater environmental forces at work, including the effects of an expanding human population.
• This  figure of interconnected human, animal, and environmental One Health systems, shows how an animal sentinel event at an individual or group level,  can be scaled up to shed light on planetary level forces.
• SEE FIGURE provided in link.
• A key advantage to using the One Health approach to address large-scale health issues related to environmental change is that animal populations, like the canary in the coalmine, may be more sensitive to the effects of a changing environment. For example, the Rockefeller report mentions the paradox of human health indicators currently improving across the globe despite the many signs of environmental degradation. By contrast, the increase in animal disease outbreaks and extinctions is easier to connect to the environmental changes.
• While many of the interactions between environmental forces and both humans and animals can be negative, One Health can also provide a model for sustainability of these interconnected systems. For example, a farm with animals, if managed in a One Health way that optimizes the health of the humans (both farmworkers and consumers and community members) as well as the animals and the local environment, can provide a scalable model that will go far toward mitigating the environmental consequences of large scale food production. One Health therefore goes “local to global”, or, more accurately, “molecular to planetary”.
• We encourage our colleagues working on One Health efforts to consider how to establish clear linkages between smaller scale interactions they may be investigating (such as zoonotic disease outbreaks) and the larger issues of a rapidly changing, and not so healthy, planet.

Editor’s comment: This presentation represents a thoughtful and reasonable assessment approach.  

Article provided by:

Peter Rabinowitz, MD, MPH

Associate Professor,University of Washington

Depts of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences,

Global Health, Family Medicine

Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)

Director, Center for One Health Research (COHR)

http://deohs.washington.edu/cohr

Dr. Rabinowitz is a longstanding One Health supporter/advocate http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/supporters.php and member of the One Health Initiative team’s Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php.

In light of the preceding NEWS item from The Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) http://www.cpme.eu/:

“The professional and student organisations representing the Medical Doctors, the Dentists, the Veterinarians and their students sent a letter to the Deans of medical, dental and veterinary schools across Europe inviting them to work collaboratively under the ‘One Health’ concept to tackle current and future challenges for the three professions and our society.

The letter is here available http://doc.cpme.eu:591/adopted/2017/cpme.2017-012.FINAL.OneHealthApproachLetter.FINAL.15052017.pdf.”

The following previously noted publication is essential for all U.S. and international Medical Schools to seriously consider!

European medical schools urged to adopt ‘One Health’ approach

https://goo.gl/oN9fEt and SEE letter https://goo.gl/kxppL4 co-signed by six organisations including the Standing Committee of European Doctors and the European Medical Students Association

Univadis

"While the One Health approach has recently gained recognition in Europe and worldwide, the organisations said its application in education needs to ..."

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