Drivers for emerging issues in animal and plant health

Abstract

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.

Drivers of Antibiotic Resistance Transmission in Low- and Middle-Income Countries from a “One Health” Perspective—A Review

“…Antibiotic resistance is a multifaceted ecosystem problem that threatens the interdependent humans, animals and environmental health [1,2] linked together under the "One Health" framework. Resistant bacteria arising in one geographical area can spread via cross-reservoir transmission to other areas worldwide either by direct exposure or through the food chain and the environment [3][4][5] In this context, the drivers of resistance are complex, multifaceted and multi-sectoral. Humans and animals share not only the same environment but also common infectious diseases [6] that may have initially originated in animals [3,7].…”

“…Resistant bacteria arising in one geographical area can spread via cross-reservoir transmission to other areas worldwide either by direct exposure or through the food chain and the environment [3][4][5] In this context, the drivers of resistance are complex, multifaceted and multi-sectoral. Humans and animals share not only the same environment but also common infectious diseases [6] that may have initially originated in animals [3,7]. The cross reservoir transmission from animal to humans potentially occur via animal contact [8,9] or from food sources [10][11][12] while transmissions from the environment to humans may occur via vegetable consumption [13] or water [14].…”

Institutionalizing One Health: From Assessment to Action

“…Understanding and addressing them requires greater attention to prevention and detection of threats, ideally before they cause disease events. 29,30 Effectively addressing these drivers brings in a wider range of potential partners, including the private sector, in a whole of government, whole of society approach to combine resources and solutions for global and local public health. 31 Mainstreaming of disease prevention into national plans for climate adaptation, biodiversity, and other sectors can help reduce risks upstream and promote early warning for disease threats.…”

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“…To improve preparedness for emerging risk, there should be a common understanding of the important role of drivers and a joint endeavour to systematically analyse the risk of emerging issues based on a better identification, description and monitoring of their drivers. Such efforts should be based not only on retrospective studies of drivers of past disease emergence events, but also on prospective, predictive models of future drivers and pathways based on anticipated patterns of global change (Richardson et al, 2016). Approaches such as network modelling, pathway discovery, the use of big data and the concept of 'global operations room' were discussed.…”