A Call for One Health in Medical Education: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Underscores the Need to Integrate Human, Animal, and Environmental Health

Mitigating Wildlife Spillover in the Clinical Setting: How Physicians and Veterinarians Can Help Prevent Future Disease Outbreaks

Introduction

The transmission of pathogens from wildlife to humans is a major global health threat that has been highlighted by the proposed origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous barriers impede pathogen spillover events from ensuing widespread human transmission, but human activity has accelerated the frequency of spillovers and subsequent disease outbreaks, in part through a booming wildlife trade whose impacts on health are not well understood.

Methods

A literature review was conducted to examine the risk that the wildlife trade poses to public health and the degree to which these risks are recognized and addressed in clinical practice and medical and veterinary education.

Results

The illicit aspects of the wildlife trade challenge efforts to understand its impacts on health. The U.S. and Europe play a leading role in the global wildlife trade that often goes unacknowledged. In particular, the consumption of wild meat and ownership of exotic pets poses public health risks. The potential role of clinicians is underutilized, both in the clinical setting and in clinical education.

Discussion

Physicians and veterinarians have the unique opportunity to utilize their clinical roles to address these knowledge gaps and mitigate future outbreaks. We outline a multifaceted approach that includes increasing clinical knowledge about the ecology of zoonotic diseases, leveraging opportunities for mitigation during patient/client-clinician interactions, and incorporating One Health core competencies into medical and veterinary school curricula.

One Welfare: Assessing the Effects of Drought and the COVID-19 Pandemic on Farmers' Well-Being and Their Perception of Goats' Welfare

Considering the interconnections between human well-being, animal welfare, and the environment, this study aimed to investigate the impacts of drought and the COVID-19 pandemic on small-scale goat farmers' well-being and their perception of goats' welfare following the One Welfare framework. Using a telephone survey, close-ended questions, and Likert scales, we assessed the impacts of drought and the COVID-19 pandemic on human well-being and animal welfare in the Coquimbo region of Chile. The DASS-21 questionnaire was used to evaluate farmers' mental health. Goat farmers perceived the scarcity of water and food for animals as factors that negatively affected animal productivity and welfare and caused an increase in farmers' stress levels. Farmers who had not been visited by a veterinarian showed higher levels of stress than those who received one visit during the year (M = 10 vs. 2, p = 0.025). Additionally, farmers who perceived better welfare of their animals showed lower levels of depression (rs = -0.17, p = 0.048), anxiety (rs = -0.21, p = 0.016), and stress (rs = -0.33, p < 0.001). These findings emphasize the importance of addressing farmers' mental health and veterinary support as crucial aspects to ensure both goat welfare and farm productivity.

A Case Study of European Collaboration between the Veterinary and Human Field for the Development of RSV Vaccines

The One Health (OH) approach describes the interconnection between the health of animals, humans, and the environment. The need for collaboration between the veterinary and human fields is increasing due to the rise in several infectious diseases that cross human-animal barriers and need to be addressed jointly. However, such collaboration is not evident in practice, especially for non-zoonotic diseases. A qualitative research approach was used to explore the barriers and enablers influencing collaborative efforts on the development of vaccines for the non-zoonotic RSV virus. It was found that in the European context, most veterinary and human health professionals involved in RSV vaccine development see themselves as belonging to two distinct groups, indicating a lack of a common goal for collaboration. Next to this, the different conceptualizations of the OH approach, and the fact that RSV is not a zoonotic disease, strengthens the opinion that there is no shared need for collaboration. This paper adds insights on how, for a non-zoonotic situation, collaboration between human and veterinary professionals shaped the development of vaccines in both areas; thus, improving public health requires awareness, mutual appreciation, and shared goal setting.

Breaking barriers: The landscape of human and veterinary medical anatomy education and the potential for collaboration

Despite human (HUM) and veterinary (VET) medical institutions sharing the goal of educating future clinicians, there is little collaboration between them regarding curricular and pedagogical practices during the preclinical/basic science training years. This may be, at least in part, due to a lack of understanding of each type of curriculum. This study presents data about curricula, student populations, pedagogical methodologies applied, and anatomy educators' training at both HUM and VET institutions. Preclinical curricula, admissions criteria, and student demographics were analyzed for 21 institutions in the United States having both HUM and VET schools. This dataset was augmented by a questionnaire sent to anatomists internationally, detailing anatomy curricula, pedagogies applied, and anatomy educators' training. Many curricular similarities between both training programs were identified, including anatomy education experiences. However, VET programs were found to include more preclinical coursework than HUM programs. Students who matriculate to VET or HUM schools have similar academic records, including prerequisite coursework and grade point average. Median HUM class size was significantly larger, and the percentage of women enrolled in VET institutions was significantly higher. Training of anatomy educators was identical with one exception: VET educators are far more likely to hold a clinical degree. This study elucidates the substantial similarities between VET and HUM programs, particularly in anatomy education, underscoring the potential for collaboration between both types of programs in areas such as interprofessional education, bioethics, zoonotic disease management, and postgraduate training.

The Built Environment Assessment of Residential Areas in Wuhan during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak

The COVID-19 epidemic has emerged as one of the biggest challenges, and the world is focused on preventing and controlling COVID-19. Although there is still insufficient understanding of how environmental conditions may impact the COVID-19 pandemic, airborne transmission is regarded as an important environmental factor that influences the spread of COVID-19. The natural ventilation potential (NVP) is critical for airborne infection control in the micro-built environment, where infectious and susceptible people share air spaces. Taking Wuhan as the research area, we evaluated the NVP in residential areas to combat COVID-19 during the outbreak. We determined four fundamental residential area layouts (point layout, parallel layout, center-around layout, and mixed layout) based on the semantic similarity model for point of interest (POI) picking. Our analyses indicated that the center-around and point layout had a higher NVP, while the mixed and parallel layouts had a lower NVP in winter and spring. Further analysis showed that the proportion of the worst NVP has been rising, while the proportion of the poor NVP remains very high in Wuhan. This study suggested the need to efficiently improve the residential area layout in Wuhan for better urban ventilation to combat COVID-19 without losing other benefits.