Prepared on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Countries that adopt integrated approaches to health promotion and disease prevention
for humans, domestic animals, and wildlife may be able to reap
significant net economic benefits compared with traditional approaches
that are more fragmented and less effective. Emerging infectious
diseases in humans and animals are imposing billions of dollars
of economic damages to economies around the world. Prevention and
management of disease outbreaks can play a significant role in
a nation’s overall economic performance. For example, even though
relatively few Canadians were infected by the 2003 SARS outbreak
in Canada, the disease significantly affected the country’s overall
economic performance in the second quarter of that year.
The One
World-One Health paradigm offers a framework for disease surveillance
and prevention that acknowledges the interconnections
between human and animal health and endorses integrated approaches
to disease research, monitoring, and prevention. More than 60%
of emerging infectious diseases in recent decades emerged from
non-human
hosts and, of these, 72% originated in wildlife. Better understanding
of wildlife health could provide new opportunities for effective
control and prevention of disease outbreaks in domestic animals
and humans and in turn, generate sizeable economic benefits.
Features
of One World-One Health Approach:
- Institutional integration
across human, domestic animal, and wildlife health disciplines
- Intensified focus on research and education regarding disease
emergence and prevention at human-animal interfaces
- Improved
monitoring and surveillance, genomic research, and field studies
to better understand disease interactions
across
species
boundaries
- Increased investment in wildlife health science
as an essential component of global disease prevention and
health
promotion
- Focus on measures to prevent “spillover” and
“spillback” of disease pathogens through better management
of human
activities, livestock,
and ecosystems
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