Report of the WSAVA One Health Committee

The WSAVA One Health Committee (OHC) was established in 2010 with a Phase I project running until 2013, a Phase II project running from 2014–2016, and the current Phase Ill project taking place between 2017 and 2019. This report reviews the activity of the OHC since the WSAVA Congress in Cartagena in September, 2016.

The current composition and areas of expertise of the OHC is:

• M.J. Day [UK, Chairman]: Pathology & Immunology
• S. Cleaveland[UK]: Rabies & Wildlife
• C. Khanna [USA]: Comparative Research
• M. Lappin [USA]: Feline Zoonoses
• C. Barton Behravesh [USA): CDC One Health and Rickettsiosis
• U. Karkare [India]: Small Animal Practice
• G. Takashima [USA]: Human-Companion Animal Bond
• A Thiermann [France]: Global One Health
• W. Eward [USA]: DVM, MD: Comparative Research
• P. Karczmar [USA]: Human medicine
• L Guardabassi [Denmark]: Antimicrobial Resistance
• S. Ryan: WSAVA Board Liaison

Affiliate Members:

• E. Breitschwerdt: Zoonoses
• T. Kuiken: Influenza, Pathology, Wildlife
• G. Oliva: Leishmaniosis
• R. Jouppi: WSAVA AWWC Liaison
• Varies: IVSA Liaison

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 OHC organized a major 2-day scientific symposium to mark the conclusion of the Phase II Project. This meeting was entitled: Preventing obesity in people and their pets: a One Health approach and took 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. The meeting was being presented in association with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and marked global One Health Day, which occurred on November 3rd, 2016. The symposium was attended by 100 human and veterinary healthcare professionals and was live-streamed via Facebook to a further 3,500 people. The major outcomes from the conference was a consensus statement on One Health¹ aspects of obesity and three peer-reviewed, open-access scientific papers covering each of the three themes of the meeting^2-4. These papers are available via the Journal of Comparative Pathology.

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 a review paper on companion animal zoonoses in the American Family Physician, a journal read by over 180,000 human healthcare professionals in North America.⁵ This was the cover story for the November 2016 issue of that Journal. To take the same One Health message to the veterinary community, we are currently co-publishing in a series format in Clinician's Brief, a series of 16 key One Health pieces relating to zoonotic infectious diseases.⁶

The One Health Committee continues to be active in promoting canine rabies control and the target of global elimination of this disease by 2030. 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 500,000 dogs against rabies and educated over 1 million schoolchildren. Funding has been sought through the WSAVA Foundation by application to the Rotary Foundation to support the educational programme in Goa, India. During the WSAVA Congress in Cartagena, the OHC convened a very successful Latin American Rabies Forum to discuss regional challenges in rabies control with human and veterinary officials and academics.

The OHC works closely with the WSAVA AFSCAN Project, co-ordinated by the WSAVA Foundation. One key element of AFSCAN is the funding of companion animal clinical research projects and these should ideally have a One Health dimension. During 2017, two projects were funded: one on canine zoonotic parasites in Tanzania, and another examining the molecular characterization of canine rabies virus isolates in Nigeria. The AFSCAN ‘app project’ was also launched in Kenya in 2017. This project will collect valuable epidemiological and demographic data on veterinarian­visiting dogs throughout Kenya.

The OHC, through the Chairman, was represented at the 85th General Session of the OIE in Paris in May 2017.

The OHC held a committee meeting during the 2016 WSAVA Congress in Cartagena, and will meet again during the current congress in Copenhagen.

At this Congress, the OHC is presenting the seventh WSAVA Global One Health Award to the Blue Dog Project. During the meeting the committee will also select the winner of the WSAVA One Health Poster/Abstract Prize.

In May 2017, The OHC Chairman delivered a lecture entitled ‘Benefits of the One Health Approach to Leishmaniosis’ at the 6th WorldLeish Congress in Toledo, Spain.

The Committee has ensured that One Health is represented in WSAVA Congress programmes, with a full-day stream during this 2017 Congress on antimicrobial resistance and a stream planned for the 2018 Congress in Singapore.

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

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, Nestle Purina, Waltham and Zoetis.

References

1.  Day MJ. One Health approach to preventing obesity in people and their pets. J Comp Pathol. 2017; in press [open access].

2.  Chandler M, Cunningham S, Lund EM, Khanna C, Naramore R, Patel A. Day MJ. Obesity and associated comorbidities in people and companion animals: a One Health perspective. J Comp Pathol. 2017; in press [open access].

3.  Bamberg E, Birch L, Endenburg N, German AJ, Neilson J, Seligman H. Takashima G, Day MJ. The financial costs, behaviour and psychology of obesity: a One Health analysis. J Comp Pathol. 2017; in press [open access].

4.  Bartges J, Kushner RF, Michel KE, Sallis R, Day MJ. One Health solutions to obesity in people and their pets. J Comp Pathol. 2017; in press [open access].

5.  Day MJ. Pet-related infections. Am Family Physician. 2016;94:794–802.

6.  Day MJ. 2017. Introducing the WSAVA One Health Committee FAQs. Clinician's Brief. 2017;April:19–20.