Veterinary Public Health Journal | Issue #17
I am because we are:The South African Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak as practical illustration of One health viability. When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. -John Muir
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Interspecies infection and interactions have historically been handled by veterinary and medical specialists only as far as it pertained to their respective fields but the modern threat of infectious diseases is often accompanied by a need for increased interdisciplinary cooperation and synergy. The rejection of this status quo is gaining momentum as the call for a shift toward One Health gains popularity. Interdependence of different species and the assumption that an inherent connection exists between man, animal and environment serves as the foundational premise that gave rise to the One Health concept. South Africa recently saw the resurgence of Foot and Mouth Disease in a December 2019 outbreak. The human animal interface in this infectious, nonzoonotic outbreak where 14 000 cattle were affected serves as a context for a community that illustrates the interconnected wellbeing as grounds for following a One Health approach. The ‘One Health’ concept flows from a growing idea that an interconnected global community should collectively take responsibility for not only the health but the wellbeing of members of said community in a unified attempt to take control of multifactorial medical challenges. Initially seen in the notion known as ‘One Medicine’, the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration for mutual benefit began to gain momentum in the early 2000’s. (LEE, 2013).
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obstacles facing both veterinary and medical professionals. (GIBBS, 2005). Largely a response to international fear during this wave of what appeared to be several serious epidemics, the ‘One Health’ concept is still in its infancy. (GIBBS E. P., 2002) . Although meant as a paradigm shift and commitment to wider interdisciplinary action that protects the wellbeing of society is often described as a hollow concept that has very little proven efficacy. (Okello, Paul , Gibbs, Vandersmissen, & Welburn, 2018). The idealistic nature of the rose-coloured interdisciplinary synergy is often met with scepticism that can only be proved or disproved through widespread operationalisation practical application that demonstrates the efficacy of this approach in improving global health and wellbeing. In an effort to debunk One Health scepticism the viability of the philosophy has to be either empirically proved or practically demonstrated. (HÄSLER, GILBERT, Jones, & PFEIFFER, 2012) The concept of One Health relies on the premise of co-dependence between the human race, animals and the environment. This serves as an attempt to illustrate the viability of One Health as concept by looking at a tangible example of intertwined human and animal livelihoods and the necessity of applying an interdisciplinary approach in order to preserve the wellbeing that medical and veterinary professionals are responsible for.
One health was born of, and fuelled by, fear. (Gibbs, 2014) The movement was triggered by several international zoonotic crises that made the codependency of different disciplines clear in the complex and multifactorial An effective way of demonstrating the VetPubHealth Journal ISSUE 17
IVSA Standing Committe on One Health
April 2020
