From the One Health Perspective: Schistosomiasis Japonica and Flooding

Schistosomiasis is a water-borne parasitic disease distributed worldwide, while schistosomiasis japonica localizes in the People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, and a few regions of Indonesia. Although significant achievements have been obtained in these endemic countries, great challenges still exist to reach the elimination of schistosomiasis japonica, as the occurrence of flooding can lead to several adverse consequences on the prevalence of schistosomiasis. This review summarizes the influence of flooding on the transmission of schistosomiasis japonica and interventions responding to the adverse impacts from the One Health perspective in human beings, animals, and the environment. For human and animals, behavioral changes and the damage of water conservancy and sanitary facilities will increase the intensity of water contact. For the environment, the density of Oncomelania snails significantly increases from the third year after flooding, and the snail habitats can be enlarged due to active and passive diffusion. With more water contact of human and other reservoir hosts, and larger snail habitats with higher density of living snails, the transmission risk of schistosomiasis increases under the influence of flooding. With the agenda set for global schistosomiasis elimination, interventions from the One Health perspective are put forward to respond to the impacts of increased flooding. For human beings, conducting health education to increase the consciousness of self-protection, preventive chemotherapy for high-risk populations, supply of safe water, early case finding, timely reporting, and treating cases will protect people from infection and prevent the outbreak of schistosomiasis. For animals, culling susceptible domestic animals, herding livestock in snail-free areas, treating livestock with infection or at high risk of infection, harmless treatment of animal feces to avoid water contamination, and monitoring the infection status of wild animals in flooding areas are important to cut off the transmission chain from the resources. For the environment, early warning of flooding, setting up warning signs and killing cercaria in risk areas during and post flooding, reconstructing damaged water conservancy facilities, developing hygiene and sanitary facilities, conducting snail surveys, using molluscicide, and predicting areas with high risk of schistosomiasis transmission after flooding all contribute to reducing the transmission risk of schistosomiasis. These strategies need the cooperation of the ministry of health, meteorological administration, water resources, agriculture, and forestry to achieve the goal of minimizing the impact of flooding on the transmission of schistosomiasis. In conclusion, flooding is one of the important factors affecting the transmission of schistosomiasis japonica. Multi-sectoral cooperation is needed to effectively prevent and control the adverse impacts of flooding on human beings, animals, and the environment.

Download Full-text

A One Health Approach for Guinea Worm Disease Control: Scope and Opportunities

Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease ◽

10.3390/tropicalmed5040159 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 159

Author(s):

Matthew R. Boyce ◽

Ellen P. Carlin ◽

Jordan Schermerhorn ◽

Claire J. Standley

Keyword(s):

Disease Surveillance ◽

Disease Burden ◽

One Health ◽

Gradual Increase ◽

Human Case ◽

Transmission Risk ◽

Epidemiological Evidence ◽

Guinea Worm ◽

Animal Populations ◽

The One

Guinea worm disease (GWD) is a neglected tropical disease that was targeted for eradication several decades ago because of its limited geographical distribution, predictable seasonality, straightforward diagnosis, and exclusive infection of humans. However, a growing body of evidence challenges this last attribute and suggests that GWD can affect both humans and animal populations. The One Health approach emphasizes the relatedness of human, animal, and environmental health. We reviewed epidemiological evidence that could support the utility of a One Health approach for GWD control in the six countries that have reported human GWD cases since 2015—Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan. Human GWD cases have dramatically declined, but recent years have seen a gradual increase in human case counts, cases in new geographies, and a rapidly growing number of animal infections. Taken together, these suggest a need for an adjusted approach for eradicating GWD using a framework rooted in One Health, dedicated to improving disease surveillance and in animals; pinpointing the dominant routes of infection in animals; elucidating the disease burden in animals; determining transmission risk factors among animals and from animals to humans; and identifying practical ways to foster horizontal and multidisciplinary approaches.

Download Full-text

One Health (r)Evolution: Learning from the Past to Build a New Future

Viruses ◽

10.3390/v10120725 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 725 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ilaria Capua ◽

Giovanni Cattoli

Keyword(s):

One Health ◽

Human Beings ◽

The Past ◽

Future Challenges ◽

Health Concept ◽

The One ◽

Evolution Learning

The One Health concept recognizes that the health of human beings, animals, plants and the environment is interconnected and interdependent. This idea has been shaped over the centuries and has gained momentum and traction as anatomy, physiology, microbiology and other disciplines have substantiated earlier theories. Here we recall major historical milestones which have contributed to shaping the One Health concept as it is today, and discuss the past and future drivers in view of future challenges in an evolving scenario.

Download Full-text

High Risk Clone: A Proposal of Criteria Adapted to the One Health Context with Application to Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in the Pig Population

Antibiotics ◽

10.3390/antibiotics10030244 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 244

Author(s):

Maud de Lagarde ◽

Ghyslaine Vanier ◽

Julie Arsenault ◽

John Morris Fairbrother

Keyword(s):

High Risk ◽

Phylogenetic Trees ◽

One Health ◽

Multidrug Resistant ◽

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia Coli ◽

Snp Data ◽

Animal Populations ◽

Whole Genomes ◽

The One ◽

Definition Of

The definition of a high risk clone for antibiotic resistance dissemination was initially established for human medicine. We propose a revised definition of a high risk clone adapted to the One Health context. Then, we applied our criteria to a cluster of enrofloxacin non susceptible ETEC:F4 isolates which emerged in 2013 in diseased pigs in Quebec. The whole genomes of 183 ETEC:F4 strains isolated in Quebec from 1990 to 2018 were sequenced. The presence of virulence and resistance genes and replicons was examined in 173 isolates. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees were constructed based on SNP data and clones were identified using a set of predefined criteria. The strains belonging to the clonal lineage ST100/O149:H10 isolated in Quebec in 2013 or later were compared to ETEC:F4 whole genome sequences available in GenBank. Prior to 2000, ETEC:F4 isolates from pigs in Quebec were mostly ST90 and belonged to several serotypes. After 2000, the isolates were mostly ST100/O149:H10. In this article, we demonstrated the presence of a ETEC:F4 high risk clone. This clone (1) emerged in 2013, (2) is multidrug resistant, (3) has a widespread distribution over North America and was able to persist several months on farms, and (4) possesses specific virulence genes. It is crucial to detect and characterize high risk clones in animal populations to increase our understanding of their emergence and their dissemination.

Download Full-text

Reclaiming Education for Health. One Health as an Emerging Paradigm in Response to COVID-19 and other Anomalies

10.31219/osf.io/qk4at ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Naina Goel ◽

Ana Barbosa Mendes ◽

Anne Snick

Keyword(s):

One Health ◽

Health Care Facilities ◽

Systemic Approach ◽

Human Beings ◽

Disciplinary Boundaries ◽

Systemic Analysis ◽

Mechanistic Worldview ◽

Research And Education ◽

The One ◽

The University

The One Health approach reveals a growing awareness that human health is interdependent with the health of all living beings and therefore requires keeping the entire planetary ecosystem healthy. The COVID-19 crisis has made this interconnection undeniable: by intruding into wild ecosystems, driven by the combined pressures of population growth and extractive economics, the risk of zoonotic diseases for which human immune systems and health care facilities are unprepared has drastically increased; the tremendous impact of this unrestrained colonization of nature is now clear worldwide. One Health has emerged in response to the increasing complexity of health issues. It states that to guarantee the health of humans, considering the health of other-than-human beings is crucial. Various related disciplines should collaborate to face the current health challenges. Despite this growing demand for a more systemic approach, health institutions and professionals appear slow in embracing it; at best, they take a narrow approach to One Health, limited to interactions between domestic animals and humans. This article proposes a systemic analysis that explains this slow uptake of One Health. It explores lock-ins in epistemological and pedagogical patterns, focusing on the university as the site where these are (re)produced. Universities emerged during the Enlightenment when technical discoveries encouraged a mechanistic worldview and a separatist approach to knowledge. The structuring of academia in separate faculties reflects this worldview and paradigm. Even if the issues the planet is facing have become much more complex, universities have not significantly changed their underlying concepts and practices of research and education. In order for professionals to adopt a more systemic approach to health, they need to unlearn this separatist worldview, transcend the disciplinary boundaries, and familiarize themselves with a ‘relational’ paradigm. The article describes a concrete example of a learning programme that is learner-driven and fosters transdisciplinary learning. Two vignettes presented by Ph.D. researchers illustrate the analysis and the response proposed here. The text concludes by proposing leverages needed to unleash the potential of this kind of transdisciplinary learning about health.

Download Full-text

Freedom and Responsibility in Neoplatonist Thought

10.1093/oso/9780198824831.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ursula Coope

Keyword(s):

First Principle ◽

Human Beings ◽

Human Soul ◽

The One ◽

Freedom And Responsibility

The Neoplatonists have a perfectionist view of freedom: an entity is free to the extent that it succeeds in making itself good. Free entities are wholly in control of themselves: they are self-determining, self-constituting, and self-knowing. Neoplatonist philosophers argue that such freedom is only possible for nonbodily things. The human soul is free insofar as it rises above bodily things and engages in intellection, but when it turns its desires to bodily things, it is drawn under the sway of fate and becomes enslaved. This book discusses this notion of freedom, and its relation to questions about responsibility. It explains the important role of notions of self-reflexivity in Neoplatonist accounts of both freedom and responsibility. Part I sets out the puzzles Neoplatonist philosophers face about freedom and responsibility and explains how these puzzles arise from earlier discussions. Part II looks at the metaphysical underpinnings of the Neoplatonist notion of freedom (concentrating especially on the views of Plotinus and Proclus). In what sense (if any) is the ultimate first principle of everything (the One) free? If everything else is under this ultimate first principle, how can anything other than the One be free? What is the connection between freedom and nonbodiliness? Part III looks at questions about responsibility, arising from this perfectionist view of freedom. Why are human beings responsible for their behaviour, in a way that other animals are not? If we are enslaved when we act viciously, how can we be to blame for our vicious actions and choices?

Download Full-text

Tick-borne zoonoses and commonly used diagnostic methods in human and veterinary medicine

Parasitology Research ◽

10.1007/s00436-020-07033-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Andrea Springer ◽

Antje Glass ◽

Julia Probst ◽

Christina Strube

Keyword(s):

Veterinary Medicine ◽

Diagnostic Tests ◽

One Health ◽

Animal Health ◽

Diagnostic Techniques ◽

Diagnostic Methods ◽

Diagnostic Tools ◽

Zoonotic Pathogens ◽

Health Concept ◽

The One

AbstractAround the world, human health and animal health are closely linked in terms of the One Health concept by ticks acting as vectors for zoonotic pathogens. Animals do not only maintain tick cycles but can either be clinically affected by the same tick-borne pathogens as humans and/or play a role as reservoirs or sentinel pathogen hosts. However, the relevance of different tick-borne diseases (TBDs) may vary in human vs. veterinary medicine, which is consequently reflected by the availability of human vs. veterinary diagnostic tests. Yet, as TBDs gain importance in both fields and rare zoonotic pathogens, such as Babesia spp., are increasingly identified as causes of human disease, a One Health approach regarding development of new diagnostic tools may lead to synergistic benefits. This review gives an overview on zoonotic protozoan, bacterial and viral tick-borne pathogens worldwide, discusses commonly used diagnostic techniques for TBDs, and compares commercial availability of diagnostic tests for humans vs. domestic animals, using Germany as an example, with the aim of highlighting existing gaps and opportunities for collaboration in a One Health framework.

Download Full-text

Prioritization of zoonotic diseases of public health significance in Nigeria using the one-health approach

One Health ◽

10.1016/j.onehlt.2021.100257 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 100257

Author(s):

Chikwe Ihekweazu ◽

Charles Akataobi Michael ◽

Patrick M. Nguku ◽

Ndadilnasiya Endie Waziri ◽

Abdulrazaq Garba Habib ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

One Health ◽

Zoonotic Diseases ◽

Public Health Significance ◽

Health Significance ◽

The One

Download Full-text

Bio-Inspired Modality Fusion for Active Speaker Detection

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11083397 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 3397

Author(s):

Gustavo Assunção ◽

Nuno Gonçalves ◽

Paulo Menezes

Keyword(s):

Superior Colliculus ◽

Visual Information ◽

Human Beings ◽

Validation Process ◽

Detection Approach ◽

Wide Range ◽

Speaker Detection ◽

The One ◽

The Brain ◽

Fusion Ability

Human beings have developed fantastic abilities to integrate information from various sensory sources exploring their inherent complementarity. Perceptual capabilities are therefore heightened, enabling, for instance, the well-known "cocktail party" and McGurk effects, i.e., speech disambiguation from a panoply of sound signals. This fusion ability is also key in refining the perception of sound source location, as in distinguishing whose voice is being heard in a group conversation. Furthermore, neuroscience has successfully identified the superior colliculus region in the brain as the one responsible for this modality fusion, with a handful of biological models having been proposed to approach its underlying neurophysiological process. Deriving inspiration from one of these models, this paper presents a methodology for effectively fusing correlated auditory and visual information for active speaker detection. Such an ability can have a wide range of applications, from teleconferencing systems to social robotics. The detection approach initially routes auditory and visual information through two specialized neural network structures. The resulting embeddings are fused via a novel layer based on the superior colliculus, whose topological structure emulates spatial neuron cross-mapping of unimodal perceptual fields. The validation process employed two publicly available datasets, with achieved results confirming and greatly surpassing initial expectations.

Download Full-text

Assessing Environmental Factors within the One Health Approach

Medicina ◽

10.3390/medicina57030240 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 57 (3) ◽

pp. 240

Author(s):

Sarah Humboldt-Dachroeden ◽

Alberto Mantovani

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

One Health ◽

Animal Health ◽

Grey Literature ◽

Aflatoxin M1 ◽

First Case ◽

Italian Regions ◽

Environmental Component ◽

Environmental Considerations ◽

The One

Background: One Health is a comprehensive and multisectoral approach to assess and examine the health of animals, humans and the environment. However, while the One Health approach gains increasing momentum, its practical application meets hindrances. This paper investigates the environmental pillar of the One Health approach, using two case studies to highlight the integration of environmental considerations. The first case study pertains to the Danish monitoring and surveillance programme for antimicrobial resistance, DANMAP. The second case illustrates the occurrence of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in milk in dairy-producing ruminants in Italian regions. Method: A scientific literature search was conducted in PubMed and Web of Science to locate articles informing the two cases. Grey literature was gathered to describe the cases as well as their contexts. Results: 19 articles and 10 reports were reviewed and informed the two cases. The cases show how the environmental component influences the apparent impacts for human and animal health. The DANMAP highlights the two approaches One Health and farm to fork. The literature provides information on the comprehensiveness of the DANMAP, but highlights some shortcomings in terms of environmental considerations. The AFM1 case, the milk metabolite of the carcinogenic mycotoxin aflatoxin B1, shows that dairy products are heavily impacted by changes of the climate as well as by economic drivers. Conclusions: The two cases show that environmental conditions directly influence the onset and diffusion of hazardous factors. Climate change, treatment of soils, water and standards in slaughterhouses as well as farms can have a great impact on the health of animals, humans and the environment. Hence, it is important to include environmental considerations, for example, via engaging environmental experts and sharing data. Further case studies will help to better define the roles of environment in One Health scenarios.

Download Full-text

Leptospirosis prevalence and risk factors in India: Evidence gap maps

Tropical Doctor ◽

10.1177/00494755211005203 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 004947552110052

Author(s):

Sandeep Moola ◽

Deepti Beri ◽

Abdul Salam ◽

Jagnoor Jagnoor ◽

Arun Teja ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

One Health ◽

Data Extraction ◽

Research Priorities ◽

Risk Groups ◽

Public Health Importance ◽

Country Level ◽

Disease Condition ◽

Extraction Parameters ◽

The One

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease of public health importance in India. A country-level evidence gap map was developed to identify gaps on epidemiology of leptospirosis. It is the first such on leptospirosis globally and on any single disease condition in India. The steps for development of evidence gap map were development of a framework to map evidence, retrieval of evidence, data extraction parameters and mapping of available evidence in evidence gap map framework. The prevalence evidence gap map consisted of 157 studies (102 in humans, 55 in animals, and 12 in both). The evidence gap map on risk factors had 120 studies (102 in humans, 11 in animals and 7 in both). There were inter-state differences in availability of research and disparity between animal and human research. Research on high-risk groups was limited and studies did not use the One Health approach to identify epidemiology, which can help understand the issue more comprehensively. The study demonstrates the potential of evidence gap maps to inform research priorities.

Download Full-text