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  Advancing a One Health Approach to Promote Health at the Human-Animal-Environment Interface Date: Nov 07 2017 Policy Number: 201712   Abstract A One Health approach (and related approaches such as veterinary public health, EcoHealth, and Planetary Health) recognizes the integral connections among humans, animals, and the environment in relation to people’s health and well-being and promotes interdisciplinary collaborations to more holistically understand and more effectively act against public health threats. More than half of known human infectious disease pathogens have an animal source or origin and result in over a billion cases globally each year, often imposing high financial and societal costs. Pathogens from around the world threaten U.S. public health and national security, given the expanding ranges of some vector-borne and parasitic diseases as well as global connectivity. Human practices (e.g., changes in land use and how food is produced) are driving ecological and evolutionary conditions that facilitate disease spillover events and contribute to antimicrobial resistance. These changes are occurring rapidly on a widespread scale, both locally and globally, and are often tied to noncommunicable disease threats (e.g., food/nutrition and water insecurity, ecotoxicology). The pursuit of understanding human, veterinary, and environmental health issues separately leads to an incomplete understanding of disease risks and, therefore, missed opportunities for mitigating and adapting to these problems. One Health measures support primary prevention of such problems, or at least their earlier detection, enabling more timely and effective containment and response to public health threats at the human-animal-environment interface. In short, systematic and sustained One Health action is warranted to promote public health. ...   Read complete statement at https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2018/01/18/advancing-a-one-health-approach