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STVM One Health Initiative
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Resolution Adopted by the Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine

 

A proposal for a resolution in support of “One Health” was introduced and unanimously adopted at the Ninth Biennial Conference of the STVM held in June 2007 in Merida, Mexico.

 

The resolution recognizes the interrelationship between animals, humans, and the environment. The resolution calls for joint educational efforts between human medical and veterinary medical schools; supporting cross-species disease surveillance and control efforts in public health; and supporting joint efforts for development and evaluation of new diagnostic methods,pharmaceuticals, and vaccines for prevention of disease. Furthermore, novel approaches to disease prevention shared by humans and animals require the input of modelers, mathematicians, conservation biologists, sociologists, and other disciplines, leading to a “One Health, One Medicine” approach at regional and continental levels. In an additional action subsequent to the adoption of the resolution, the STVM also acted to change its mantra to reflect “One Health” as follows: “STVM: Working together to promote global health.”

 

"One Health”—A Resolution of the Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine to Promote Collaboration between Veterinary and Human Medical Professionals and Scientists

 

Whereas:

 

• the STVM promotes animal health globally;
• the STVM recognizes that human’s actions toward domestic and wild animals influence human health and disease in dramatic ways, especially in tropical regions markedly affected by human’s interventions;
• zoonoses can, by definition, infect both animals and humans;
• the majority of the emerging infectious diseases, including those potentially arising through bioterrorism, are zoonoses;
• conservation medicine is the science integrating animal and human health with the health of ecological systems, including that affected by human’s actions;
• by their very nature, the fields of human medicine and veterinary medicine are complementary and synergistic in confronting, controlling, and preventing zoonotic diseases from infecting across
species;
• collaboration and communication between human medicine and veterinary medicine have been limited in recent decades;
• better collaboration and communication are needed to address many issues, among others, animal-transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in humans, protection against highly pathogenic avian influenza, nontherapeutic use in animals of antimicrobials that are also used in humans, policies on the use of animals in research, medical education, product safety testing, and
xenotransplantation;
• the challenges of the 21st century demand that human and veterinary medical professionals work together;
• STVM members are advocating an initiative to promote collaboration between human and veterinary medical health professionals globally, especially those working in tropical regions of the world; and
• an initiative, often called “One Health,” has been developed to improve the lives of all species—human and animal—through the integration of human and veterinary medicine with the goal of improving public health and advancing health care options for humans and animals.

 

Therefore the membership of the STVM resolves in their global actions:


• to promote collaboration between human and veterinary medical professionals and scientists;
• to take action to foster joint educational efforts between human and veterinary medical schools;
• to encourage joint efforts in clinical care through the assessment, treatment, and prevention of cross-species disease transmission;
• to support cross-species disease studies, surveillance, and control efforts in tropical veterinary medicine, conservation medicine, and public health;
• to support efforts for the development and evaluation of new diagnosticmethods, medicines, and vaccines for the prevention and control of diseases across species; and
• to engage in a dialogue with colleagues in tropical medicine, public health and ecological
health in order to enhance collaboration in medical education, clinical care, public health, and biomedical research.