One health approach to food safety in pork production chain

With the increase in worldwide demand for meat, fast-growing species with efficient feed conversion rates – such as pigs – are likely to account for a major share in the growth in the livestock subsector. Commercial pig production has intensified significantly in recent decades. In developing countries, half of the current pig population is still kept in traditional small-scale subsistence-driven production systems in which pigs provide much more than meat playing a role as a financial safety net, providing additional cash for school fees, medical treatment or small investments beside being part of cultural traditions

Coordinated surveillance system under the One Health approach for cross-border pathogens that threaten the Union - options for sustainable surveillance strategies for priority pathogens

This report provides guidance for Member states who plan to submit applications under the work programme 'CP-g-22-04.01 Direct grants to Member States' authorities'. The priority pathogens on which the coordinated surveillance under the grant initiative shall focus have been identified in a prioritisation exercise with Member States and ECDC. These are Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever, echinococcosis, hepatitis E, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), influenza in swine, Lyme disease, Q-fever, Rift Valley fever, tick-borne encephalitis, West Nile fever and Disease X (Disease Y of animals). Surveillance activities (surveillance cards) have been proposed for these agents in this report. Member States should select one or more diseases from the list of priority diseases and then choose surveillance activities from the surveillance cards and modify them where needed, to reflect their national needs and situation. Member States can also design alternative surveillance activities for the priority infectious agents that may better fit the epidemiological situation in their country. Further, this report provides a section on surveillance perspectives that links infectious agents to different hosts, allowing Member States to consider the testing for multiple infectious agents in samples from a single host population, as well as sections providing guidance on surveillance in vectors and wildlife and for Disease X (Disease Y in animals). Member States are encouraged to develop cross-sectoral collaborations and the report provides guidance on cross-sectoral collaboration to help them. Finally, there is a roadmap providing an overall description of the steps in the process of developing a surveillance system in order to apply for the grant.</p

Renewed global partnerships and redesigned roadmaps for rabies prevention and control

Canine rabies, responsible for most human rabies deaths, is a serious global public health concern. This zoonosis is entirely preventable, but by focusing solely upon rabies prevention in humans, this "incurable wound" persists at high costs. Although preventing human deaths through canine rabies elimination is feasible, dog rabies control is often neglected, because dogs are not considered typical economic commodities by the animal health sector. Here, we demonstrate that the responsibility of managing rabies falls upon multiple sectors, that a truly integrated approach is the key to rabies elimination, and that considerable progress has been made to this effect. Achievements include the construction of global rabies networks and organizational partnerships; development of road maps, operational toolkits, and a blueprint for rabies prevention and control; and opportunities for scaling up and replication of successful programs. Progress must continue towards overcoming the remaining challenges preventing the ultimate goal of rabies elimination

The SAPUVETNET Projects: experiences of intersectoral collaboration and research/training in Veterinary Public Health across Latin America and Europe.

SAPUVETNET is the acronym of “Red de Salud Publica Veterinaria/Network of Veterinary Public Health”, a series of projects co-financed under the EU ALFA program, aimed to support an International network on Veterinary Public Health (VPH) constituted by Faculties of Veterinary Medicine from Latin-America (LA) and Europe (EU) (http://www.sapuvetnet.org). Since its start in 2002, SAPUVETNET has been continuously growing and expanding, and now it also includes several International collaborating institutions/organizations. The SAPUVETNET projects have envisaged a series of objectives/activities aimed to promote and enhance VPH research/training and intersectoral collaboration across LA and EU. Project partners use a mail-list and distance learning platforms (e.g. Moodle, Colibri) to organize common teaching activities. Major results so far achieved are: harmonisation/development of a common VPH curriculum; creation of common modules/courses on selected VPH topics; use of innovative teaching methods, based on problem solving approach/case studies; publication of videos (DVDs) and self-learning program (CD-ROM) on meat inspection/hygiene (in 3 languages); development of an on-line VPH teaching Manual (beta version in Spanish); organization of e-conferences on upcoming VPH issues; publication of a new International VPH Journal “Una Salud/One Health/Uma Saude” (in 3 languages); exchanges of teachers/researchers (e.g. bilateral visits LA-EU-LA) and coordinating meetings; participation in and/or organization of VPH seminars/congresses/conferences at National and International level; publication of scientific and popular articles on VPH issues related to project activities. SAPUVETNET didactic tools have been and/or are being tested/used by partner faculties/universities and other teaching institutions. Didactic material can be freely circulated and distributed, and can be used for distance learning, be modified/adapted to the local context of any country/geographical area, even outside LA and EU

Drivers for emerging issues in animal and plant health.

The history of agriculture includes many animal and plant disease events that have had major consequences for the sector, as well as for humans. At the same time, human activities beyond agriculture have often driven the emergence of diseases. The more that humans expand the footprint of the global population, encroach into natural habitats, alter these habitats to extract resources and intensify food production, as well as move animals, people and commodities along with the pathogens they carry, the greater the potential for pathogens and pests to spread and for infection to emerge or re-emerge. While essential to human well-being, producing food also plays a major role in disease dynamics. The risk of emergence of pests and pathogens has increased as a consequence of global changes in the way food is produced, moved and consumed. Climate change is likely to increase pressure on the availability of food and provide newly suitable conditions for invasive pests and pathogens. Human population displacements due to economic, political and humanitarian crises represent another set of potential drivers for emerging issues. The overlapping drivers of plant, animal and human disease emergence and environmental changes point towards the concept of 'One Health'. This paradigm underlines the urgent need to understand the influence of human behaviour and incorporate this understanding into our approach to emerging risks. For this, we face two major challenges. One is cultural; the second is methodological. We have to look at systems not under the narrow view of specific hazards but with a wider approach to system dynamics, and consider a broad spectrum of potential outcomes in terms of risk. In addition, we have to make sense of the vast amounts of data that are available in the modern age. This paper aims to help in preparing for the cultural and methodological shifts needed in our approach to emerging risks

United against rabies forum:The one health concept at work

Human deaths from rabies are preventable and can be eliminated by applying a systematic One Health approach. However, this ancient disease still threatens the lives of millions of people in up to 150 countries and kills an estimated 59, 000 people every year. Rabies today is largely a disease of poverty, almost always linked to dog bites, with most deaths occurring in neglected communities in Africa and Asia. The disease places an immense economic burden on its victims, a cost that far outweighs the investment needed to control it. A global framework for rabies elimination in humans is set out in Zero by 30: The Global Strategic Plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030. Despite the existence of proven control strategies and agreement on the path to eliminating human rabies deaths, mortality numbers from rabies remain high, and COVID-19 has set back efforts even further. But COVID-19 has also highlighted the value of a One Health approach to zoonotic disease and pandemic prevention. Rabies control programs offer a practical route to building One Health capacities that can also address other zoonotic threats, including those with pandemic potential. The United Against Rabies Forum aims to accelerate progress on rabies elimination while applying a One Health approach. The Forum promotes cross-sector collaboration among stakeholders and supports countries in their rabies elimination efforts. Increased political engagement and resource mobilization, both internationally and nationally, will be needed to achieve global rabies goals and can also make One Health implementation a reality

The road to dog rabies control and elimination-what keeps us from moving faster?

Rabies, a vaccine preventable neglected tropical disease, still claims an estimated 35,000–60,000 human lives annually. The international community, with more than 100 endemic countries, has set a global target of 0 human deaths from dog-transmitted rabies by 2030. While it has been proven in several countries and regions that elimination of rabies as a public health problem is feasible and tools are available, rabies deaths globally have not yet been prevented effectively. While there has been extensive rabies research, specific areas of implementation for control and elimination have not been sufficiently addressed. This article highlights some of the commonest perceived barriers for countries to implementing rabies control and elimination programs and discusses possible solutions for sociopolitical, organizational, technical, and resource-linked requirements, following the pillars of the global framework for the elimination of dogmediated human rabies adopted at the global rabies meeting in December 2015.https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health#am2017Microbiology and Plant Patholog