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Ireland Veterinarian in association with Dublin City of Science 2012 Develop Unique One Health Video

 

An unusual, unique and most dramatic One Health Utube video was recently developed by Dr. Sean J. Callanan http://www.ucd.ie/conway/research/researchers/conwayfellowsa-z/professorseancallanan/, a veterinary medical pathologist from Ireland, “in collaboration with film students and academics/researchers in an effort to convey our activities to a lay audience” according to Dr. Callanan.

 

As a preface to watching thé video, Dr. Callanan explained to thé One Health Initiative website team:

 

“Our intention was to make this scenario of thé video to look like we were doing a human post mortem [autopsy]. It was designed to reveal at the end that it was an animal. The thought behind this is that essentially veterinary medical and medical practices are similar and that concerns in the identification of tuberculosis (TB) in animals and man goes both ways. In fact we usually prefer to let people see the video without knowing whether its origins are from a veterinary medical or medical establishment (which of course is difficult when one reads the attached text synoposis on the utube).

 

Regarding the telephone conversation to a fictional physician [i.e. thé health care provider of thé woman featured], we took [“poetic license”] liberties as it had to be a short presentation. The purpose of this is to relay to the public that communication between both these professions is important.  

 

In reality in Ireland, we would communicate to our Government officials and they would relay the message to the health professionals (for instance this happens frequently for Salmonella outbreaks), but we felt such activity would get lost in translation.  We also took liberties in removing masks when a suspicion of TB was diagnosed, but this was to stress gravity.

 

This exact story is not factual but it is based on a recent one where Mycobacterium Bovis [a strain of TB in cattle that can be transmitted to humans and other animals via ingestion of unpasteurized milk] was diagnosed in a group of cats. We communicated the issue to the local veterinarian who directly contacted the owners, who then made direct arrangements with their General Practitioner [human health care provider]. We also had previous issues with a couple of pet Alpacas (actually owned by a General Practitioner and continually played with by his children. Again, when these animals were subsequently euthanised and TB confirmed [using recognized pathology techniques common to both medical and veterinary medical pathology doctors] we of course had direct communications.

 

In summary, we never meant this to be a video to educate veterinarians, physicians or other health scientists, it is a video for our non-veterinary audience to communicate how much veterinary medicine and human medicine are intertwined.”

 

Professor Sean Callanan, MVB, PhD, MRCVS, MRC Pathology, Certifed VR, Dipl ECVP

 

With this explanation preface, the One Health Initiative team and Dr. Callanan cordially invite you to view thé Utube presentation:

 

Please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiJk1LegLIM