One World- One Health: Prevent Zoonosis
Dr. Mrinmoyee Sarma1, Dr. Monoshree Sarma1, Dr. Phunu Talukdar1
1* COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE, KHANAPARA, GUWAHATI-781022
World Zoonosis day is a global day to raise awareness and action on prevention and control of Zoonotic diseases. It is celebrated every year on 6th July to commemorate the scientific achievement of Louis Pasteur who successfully administered the first vaccine against Rabies in 1885. Since then, this day is observed as ‘World Zoonosis Day’ all over the globe. This year’s theme is ‘One World, One Health: Prevent Zoonosis’
Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases that can be spread from animals to human being and vice versa. It spreads via direct contact or can be vector borne or food borne. As per International Livestock Research Institute, three quarter of emerging human infections are zoonotic. 60 percent of these are transmitted by animals and 70 percent have animal origin. According to a report of UNEP, two million people in low and middle income countries die each year from neglected endemic zoonotic diseases. Studies have found that 75% of new emerging and re-emerging disease pathogens accounts for zoonotic diseases. Amongst them, 60% spread from domestic and wild animals, and almost 80% of them are of concern regarding bioterrorism.
Since last 20 years, the world has experienced several waves of dramatic zoonotic disease outbreaks, like the deadly viral diseases of Ebola virus, hantavirus disease, the mammoth pathogenic avian influenza, West Nile disease, Rift Valley fever, severe acute respiratory syndrome, Marburg disease, rabies, Middle East respiratory syndrome, monkeypox disease, and the COVID-19 pandemic, and the bacterial diseases of anthrax, brucellosis, tuberculosis, salmonellosis, and Escherichia coli (O157:H7) and Yersinia pestis infections. Some zoonoses are seen to be causing recurring outbreaks, whereas others has the potential to cause worldwide pandemics and have been declared diseases of public health emergencies of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Covid-19 virus that has left a dramatic impact on the human heath, society and economy is surmised to have link with bats and hence considered as a zoonotic disease. This is not the first of the kind where the occurrence of a human infection can be traced backed to have an animal origin. Earlier in 2003, China was smacked by an epidemic caused by another strain of SARS COV that is believed to be an animal virus of unknown reservoir. In the recent past it was observed that multitude of human infections have an animal link. The 2009 Influenza H1N1 pandemic, SARS COV1, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoV, NIPAH virus outbreak in Kerala, ongoing monkey pox outbreak in endemic and non endemic countries are some examples of zoonotic infections that have wrecked havoc in the mind of people.
As per a report published by UNEP, the factors that have exacerbated the risk of zoonotic infections are ever increasing human population and its unchecked activities, growing demand for animal protein (in the last five decades, meat production has increased by 260%), unsustainable agricultural intensification, destruction of nature habitat and wild spaces, extensive utilisation, poaching and exploitation of wildlife, unsustainable utilisation of natural resources due to rapid urbanisation, change in the land use pattern and industrialisation, swift international trade and travel that have erased borders and distances, alteration in the food supply chain and climate change and biodiversity loss. The unchecked use of antimicrobials in food animals is another factor responsible for emerging zoonotic infections. Its increases the potential for development of drug resistant strain of zoonotic pathogens which may jump from animal to human population. Such antimicrobial resistant strains are a matter of concern as it makes the easily available antimicrobials ineffective against the zoonotic diseases. Antibiotic residues in food of animal origin generate potential pit falls to man as low level of exposure to antibiotic causes alterations of microflora, and increases the possibility of Antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobials are of paramount importance in treating bacterial infections in both man and animals. Few antimicrobials utilized for treating diseases or promoting growth in livestock are also used for therapeutic purpose in human. So, there is every possibility of cross resistance of bacteria to antimicrobial drugs that are used in human medicine. Microbiological and chemical evidence reveal the fact that these resistant bacteria or resistance determinants could pass from animal to humans, causing infections that are harder to treat. Negative outcome of antimicrobial resistance include increasing incidence of human infections caused by resistant pathogen, therapeutic failures, increased severity of infections, prolonged duration of treatment, increased mortality, increased cost of society etc.
Looking into the economic and public heath burden of the ongoing pandemic and its devastating impacts, we need to be more proactive to stop another pandemic from happening. With an eye to curb the transmission of zoonotic diseases, we must raise awareness and increase knowledge on zoonotic and emerging pathogens, threats they possess to human health and measures to tackle the risk of future outbreak at all levels. This requires a line of scientific enquiry into the complex social, economic and ecological dimensions of emerging zoonotic diseases. We should pinpoint the core drivers of the emerging zoonotic diseases from animal husbandry settings (both in industrialised agriculture and small production) to conversion of land and climate change. These factors are crushing natural habitat, causing large scale ecological imbalance thus pushing people closer to the disease vectors. We should upgrade the sanitary measures and develop effective means to monitor and regulate the traditional food markets and incentivise the legal wildlife trade and animal husbandry to take up measures to combat zoonotic infections. The drivers of zoonotic diseases generally coincide with the drivers of the climate change and biodiversity loss. Animal extinction due to exploitation, deforestation and poaching is another cause of zoonotic spill over. In order words, the health of mankind hinge on the health of the planet Earth and other species. Hence, we should build a healthy, green and safer planet.
Certain viruses have the tendency for genetic mutation that may produce a new genotype and a new pandemic. An article in the Indian Journal of Medical Research says nearly 7,00,000 animal viruses may causes human infection. Wild animals are regarded as veiled threats for many global pandemics. Many domesticated animals may act as the amplifier host of pathogens emerging from the wild. Since the infection results from human-animal interface, collaborative efforts should be made by both medical and veterinary professionals in conformity with “One Health” that was introduced in 2007 amidst global scare of H5N1 pandemic. This concept was advocated by World Health Organisation (WHO), Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to fight human infections by human-animal- environment interface. One Health approaches requires multi sectored, multidisciplinary and multi speciality coordination. One Health approach is an approach to conduct joint disease surveillance; control and prevent zoonotic diseases outbreaks; improve food safety and security; and decrease antimicrobial resistant infections to improve human and animal health. Implementation of One Health is a challenging task. Because most countries are devoid of formal mechanisms for coordinating and integrating activities taken across the human health, agricultural, and environmental sectors, which are traditionally dealt by separate ministries or government agencies having different mandates on activities and spending. Thus, practical applications of One Health approaches are ad-hoc, leading to delayed or incomplete prevention and control measures. Appropriate research should be carried out both at animal and human levels and their results should be integrated. Its success depends on institutional collaboration, joint planning etc. Strong surveillance should be implemented with a view to curb such brutal viral outbreaks at its commencement. Comparative medicine is acknowledged since a long time for its benefits in scientific research and One Health increases comparative medicine’s scope to surveillance in animals and the environment for early diagnosis and proper understanding of the threats in order to mitigate risk and impacts. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is holding international events on ‘zoonotic diseases’ to help countries to prepare action plan for these diseases containment. An innovative 10 years partnership Global Virome Project (GVP) has put tremendous efforts to detect the unknown viral menace. International Health Regulations (IHR2005) that was adopted in 2005 aims to provide public health responses to prevent and control international spread of diseases. WHO is collaborating with all international organisations dealing with animal health to bolster the contribution of veterinarians in the enforcement of IHR (2005) and monitoring zoonotic diseases. Neglected tropical diseases have tremendously affected not less than 1 billion people in disadvantaged and marginalized communities throughout the globe. Acting promptly to efficiently control the burden of zoonoses through One Health is immensely critical. As of now, plethora of international One Health initiatives have been used and developed to help countries in enhancing the capacity of One Health approach, along with developing strategies, implementation of programmes, legislation, policies and undertaking studies to make global health security better and, achieve sustainable development goals and to comply with International Health Regulations and handle common health threats. Controlling zoonotic transmission is a tedious job and requires the collaboration of all stakeholders in line to act in consortium for addressing the issues.
REFERENCE
- Kelly et al. (2020). Implementing One Health approaches to confront emerging and re-emerging zoonotic disease threats: lessons from PREDICT. One Health Outlook, 1-7.
- Aggarwal, D.; Ramachandran, A. (2020). One Health Approach to Address Zoonotic Diseases. Indian J Community Med., 45(Suppl 1): S6–S8.
- Erkyihun, A.; Alemayehu, M. B. (2022). One Health Approach for the Control of Zoonotic Diseases. Zoonoses.,
