Importance of One Health for COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

Importance of One Health for COVID-19 and Future Pandemics. More than 400 animals from 29 countries have been reported infected with COVID-19, including nearly 300 animals in the United States, as well as thousands of mink. 

 One Health Day, a global campaign that highlights the need for a One Health approach to address shared health threats by recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, and our environment. 

This approach is more important than ever as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, is a zoonotic virus, which means it can spread between people and animals.

 As more animals are reported infected with the COVID-19 virus, it becomes increasingly clear that a One Health approach is crucial to address new disease threats that affect both people and animals.

Mapping Zoonotic Disease.

Compiling data from hundreds of studies on past zoonotic disease outbreaks, Barbara Han, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, and her colleagues have mapped where current reservoirs are most likely to be found. The goal was to be able to predict where future pathogenic leaps from mammals to humans are likely to occur. “What we really want to do is shift the strategy from one of being defensive—always running around putting out fires—to one that’s preemptive,” Han told The Washington Post. “One step toward that goal is to figure out where things are, what’s carrying the known diseases and what’s their distribution.” But the results, published today (June 14) in Trends in Parasitology, are only a piece of the puzzle, she added. “It’s a hard game to play because there’s hundreds and hundreds of combinations of different zoonoses and carriers. We’d hoped to find a unifying theme, and instead there’s just 45 more questions that need to be answered.” Zoonotic diseases are not, for example, concentrated in tropical environments, as might be predicted. In fact, the subarctic—Alaska, northern Canada, and northern Russia—had the same number of zoonoses as the tropics, despite being home to fewer reservoir species. “Even though there are more species in the tropics, fewer of them carry zoonoses,” Han said in a press release. “In contrast, more of the species living in northern latitudes, such as the Arctic Circle, carry more zoonoses. Understanding the implications of this pattern in light of climate warming trends will be an important line of inquiry that should be addressed sooner rather than later.” Other hot spots included Europe—consistent with previous zoonotic mapping efforts—as well as Southeast Asia. Han and colleagues also turned up surprises when assessing which types of animal hosts harbor the most zoonotic pathogens. Rodents, for example, carried about the same number as carnivores, despite having nearly 10 times as many species. “I’m hoping to work together with people who really understand public health to think about the wildlife human interface, and the cultural things that permit or prevent that from happening,” Han told The Washington Post. “This is a multifaceted question and very complex . . . and the devil’s in the details.” Contributed by the scientist.

Viruses that spread from animals to humans are on the rise.

Viruses that develop in animals and can spread to humans are on the rise around the world and scientists say more research is needed to prevent them from evolving. Viruses that pose a risk to both human and animal health are known as zoonotic diseases.The more severe examples include ebola in west Africa, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in the Arabian Peninsula, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Asia, and even Hendra in Australia. The University's Dr Siobhan Mor has just completed a study into how much scientists know about such animal diseases before they develop.She said half of the data that exists focuses on known zoonotic diseases, and there is a lack of information on animal viruses that have the potential to develop into human ones."We identified 10 diseases that occur at the livestock-wildlife interface, majority of which also affect humans, and found that the majority of the research has been occurring on these [10] particular diseases since the 1960s," Dr Mor said."There has been a lot of research on these particular diseases, with far less on other diseases occurring."Dr Mor said the findings are concerning, given animal diseases could pose a greater risk to human health as livestock production systems become more intensive."We are seeing more diseases occurring now in people as a result of those livestock systems and the way we are producing human food," she said.We are seeing more diseases occurring now in people as a result of those livestock systems and the way we are producing human food. Dr Siobhan Mor, University of Sydney, "We are raising animals in close proximity to wildlife because we have cleared land in order to make way for our agricultural production." Dr Mor said sometimes new diseases are detected in humans first, which are later found to have initially developed in animals, such as HIV."Historically, we know that HIV comes from animals, but what the research shows is there are increasingly new diseases being found in humans and we later determine have been occurring in animals as well."Dr Mor said Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, is a more modern example of an animal disease that has become more problematic for humans in recent decades."I think everyone's eyes are on viruses known as coronaviruses," she said. Zoonotic diseases have become more publicised recently with the west African ebola outbreak, which has so far killed more than 10,000 people.Fruit bats are thought to be the natural hosts of the ebola virus, as is also the case with the deadly Hendra virus in Australia. Hendra has infected seven Australians and killed four, as well as countless horses, since it was first recorded in the Brisbane suburb of Hendra in 1994. Dr Mor said human Hendra cases demonstrated a need to understand more about bats, which are linked to a number of zoonotic diseases."Bats are really interesting and we now know they harbour many germs which can make people very sick," Read more here; http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-21/researchers-say-more-information-is-needed-zoonotic-diseases/6635738

TUBERCULOSIS ; A KILLER DISEASE.

Tuberculosis kills more people than you know,posing an economic threat. Anew data shows trend; http://www.healio.com/infectious-disease/respiratory-infections/news/online/%7Bbc474ce1-23b6-4223-9bea-1bceec64f815%7D/tb-kills-more-people-annually-than-any-other-infectious-disease?utm_

ANTHRAX.

Anthrax is a zoonotic disease,characterized by bleeding/blood oozing from all orifices.The spores are deadly and as such post mortem is not done on cases.The spores have even been used as war weapons.The disease has been confirmed in a farm, that had a similar case over 20 years.This shows how viable the spores can be in the environment; see more http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-34647511