News

Recent Multidisciplinary “One Health” Paper Published by UK Physician and Team   “The intensification of livestock production and its impact on zoonotic disease risk” The Communicable Diseases Policy Research Group from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Tropical Medicine headed by prominent research physician Professor Richard R. Coker, MD Richard.Coker@lshtm.ac.uk recently published an online “One Health” personal view article in the Lancet Journal  http://centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/framework-to-support-one-health-research-for-policy-on-emerging-zoonoses/ entitled “Towards a conceptual framework to support one-health research for policy on emerging zoonoses”.           Dr. Coker told the One Health Initiative website team, “In essence, if were successful, this interdisciplinary research project will examine the interface between changing modes of livestock production and risk of zoonotic disease emergence. Our hypothesis is that rapidly changing systems for the production of animal-based foods will increase the risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks, including pandemics, and their social and economic impacts. Our aim is both to test this hypothesis and create a novel, interdisciplinary theoretical framework and methodological paradigm which can be used to further develop and explore this and other hypotheses about zoonotic disease risk.”  He added, “This project is about zoonotic disease risk and its consequences. We will look at risk in the context of how zoonotic diseases are generated and distributed in livestock systems, how they may emerge from these into human populations, and how different zoonotic disease risk scenarios in human systems may affect public health and national economies.”