The WSAVA OHC mission statement is: To ensure the prominence of the small companion animal - human interface in the global One Health agenda. The committee has three broad areas of activity: (1) the human-companion animal bond, (2) comparative clinical research, and (3) zoonotic infectious disease.

In the area of the human-companion animal bond, the One Health Committee (OHC) has organized a major 2-day scientific symposium to mark the conclusion of the Phase II Project. This meeting is entitled: Preventing obesity in people and their pets: a One Health approach and will take place on 9–11th November, 2016 in Atlanta Georgia. Obesity is one of the most significant shared healthcare issues in human and veterinary medicine and the ideal target for a One Health approach to management. This will be a true One Health event, with pairs of speakers from human and veterinary medicine addressing three major themes: (1) Obesity and Disease, (2) the Costs, Behaviour and Psychology of Obesity, and (3) One Health Solutions to Obesity. The meeting is being presented in association with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and marks global One Health Day, which occurs on November 3rd, 2016. Complete details and registration for the symposium can be found on the designated website: www.wsava-obesity.com (VIN editor: the link is not accessible on 2/24/17).

The OHC continues to focus in the area of zoonotic infectious disease. In order to communicate directly with our colleagues in human healthcare, we published an Editorial on One Health in the American Family Physician, a journal read by over 180,000 human healthcare professionals in North America.¹ This is being followed by a more detailed review of companion animal zoonoses soon to be published in the same journal and co-published in a series format in Clinician's Brief and International Clinician's Brief for veterinary practitioners.

The One Health Committee continues to be active in promoting canine rabies control and the target of global elimination of this disease by 2030. WSAVA has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) and partners with GARC in the 'End Rabies Now' campaign. As part of this agreement, WSAVA veterinarians may take (at no cost) the on-line Rabies Educator Certificate produced by GARC.

The committee supports the Afya Serengeti project in Tanzania and the Mission Rabies Project in India, Sri Lanka and now several African countries. The latter project has now vaccinated over 250,000 dogs against rabies, neutered over 50,000 dogs and educated over 320,000 schoolchildren.

The OHC, through the Chairman, attended a joint OIE-WHO-FAO-GARC global rabies conference in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2015. The OHC and WSAVA was also represented at the 84th General Session of the OIE in Paris in May 2016. In April 2016, the OHC Chairman participated in discussions about rabies control in South East Asia at the 3rd Southeast Asia and Indian Subcontinent Forum on Canine and Feline Vaccination in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The OHC has held committee meetings in June 2015 in Indianapolis, USA and will meet during the 2016 WSAVA Congress in Cartegena, Colombia.

At this Congress, the OHC is presenting the sixth WSAVA Global One Health Award to Dr Luke Gamble, the head of Worldwide Veterinary Services and Mission Rabies. During the meeting the committee will also select the winner of the WSAVA One Health Poster/Abstract Prize.

In March 2016, The OHC Chairman delivered the 33rd Annual Paatsama Lecture (on the subject of One Health) at the Congress of the Finnish Association of Veterinary Practitioners in Tampere, Finland, and in September 2016, he delivered the opening lecture in a One Health stream at the 26th Annual ECVIM Congress in Gothenburg.

The Committee has ensured that One Health is represented in WSAVA Congress programmes, with a full-day stream during this 2016 Congress in and stream planned for the 2017 Congress in Copenhagen.

Further information and publications from the One Health Committee may be found on the OHC webpages and the OHC Facebook page.

Acknowledgments

The work of the OHC would not be possible without the support of our sponsorship consortium, which includes Bayer Animal Health, Elanco, Hills Pet Nutrition, MSD Animal Health, Merial, Nestle Purina, Waltham and Zoetis.

References

1.  Day MJ. Human-Animal health interactions: the role of One Health. American Family Physician. 2016;93:344–345.