One Health, or One Health, you know? It is an approach launched in the early 2000s that closely links the health of humans, animals, and the environment. The concept is not new and dates back at least two hundred years. But for the past few years, he has remembered us. Rather brutally.
The concept of One Health has re-emerged following a succession of health crises, reminds us Cécile Aenishaenslin, assistant professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
First there was the H5N1 avian flu epidemic in 2003, which raised fears on the international scene. Not long after, the first coronavirus, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), emerged under very similar circumstances to COVID-19. That is, because of the human-animal interface in a market in Asia, where several species of animals were kept and traded for food. This interface between animals and humans has facilitated the transmission of pathogens.
The number of “new emerging diseases” has exploded over the past fifty years. We can think of Ebola, Nipah, H1N1 avian flu, Zika, and Chikungunya. Their appearance at regular intervals motivated the organization of the “One World, One Health” conference in 2004 in New York City by the Wildlife Conservation Society. The conference concluded with the publication of the twelve “Manhattan Principles”, which call for the implementation of a more comprehensive approach to prevent, among other things, outbreaks of zoonoses: infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans and vice versa.
Chronicle of an announced pandemic
In her most recent book, The Factory of Pandemics, Marie-Monique Robin writes: Since the 2000s, hundreds of scientists have been sounding the alarm: human activities, by hastening the collapse of biodiversity, have created the conditions of an ‘epidemic of pandemics.
According to the World Organization for Animal Health, 60% of existing human infectious diseases are zoonoses. Markets selling meat from wild animals pose a significant risk of an outbreak. But such diseases can be found only a few kilometers from us.
It happened close to you
Lyme disease is a good example of a zoonosis that has emerged closer to us, explains François Milord, medical advisor.
Lyme disease is caused by a tick that transmits bacteria to us. This tick itself catches the infection from small rodents. It is a disease that did not exist fifteen years ago. But with climate change, ticks have crossed the US border, and are now in southern San Diego. You can use the best tick remover for cats if you find an embedded fully ticks on dogs or any other pets.
In Canada, the increase in cases of Lyme disease is exponential: from 144 cases in 2009, we rose to more than 2,500 in 2019. The disease also affects pets, mainly dogs.
Climate change and deforestation are to blame. Longer, hotter summers and milder winters increase tick survival, growth, and reproduction rates. They thus establish colonies in new areas and increase their numbers where they were already established.
Plants to our rescue
For his part, Michel Labrecque, Curator and Head of the Research and Scientific Development Division at Espace pour la vie, observes that climate change also affects the natural habitat of plant species. “You can see habitats that are heavily disturbed by outbreaks of insects that normally wouldn’t have been there — some that should have been killed by cold winters — and that can decimate forests significantly.
He and his team are busy finding solutions to turn the tide. Because the concept of One Health is also interested in the benefits of environment-human relations. As proof, the treatment of wastewater… by plants.
We are working to treat waste landfill areas that generate leachate (water that has percolated through buried waste) that flows into waterways and enters the aquatic environment.
For years, Michel Labrecque has been interested in phytoremediation, a technique that uses plants to biologically decontaminate soils polluted by human activity (metals, pesticides, solvents, etc.) The technique is also used to treat contaminated water and to purify the air.
The greatest merit of the One Health approach is undoubtedly to decompartmentalize the disciplines. Doctors, veterinarians, agronomists, and epidemiologists — to name a few — work together. The proliferation of health crises, including that of COVID-19, is a sign of the failure of functioning in silos. We just have to hope, as the Chinese proverb says, that failure is indeed the mother of success.
