The One Health approach: case studies between vector and food-borne diseases

The One Health (OH) approach intends to develop multi-sectoral collaborations to improve the health of people, animals, and the environment, and has been claimed to be central to facing actual global health challenges. Two experiences focusing on the OH approach are presented, exploring the implementation of a OH surveillance on vector-borne and food-borne diseases. The experience of the MediLabSecure projects has led to a survey on early warning indicators, to be used in surveillance activities against relevant vector-borne diseases. Results showed that the collection of such indicators varies greatly in the 22 non-European countries involved. For example, information on animal population density is collected in all the countries, while information on wildlife is rarely collected. In the human sector, data on disease frequency or occurrence are frequently collected, as it happens for the presence of vectors in the area, which was the most collected indicator for the vector sector. At the same time, the collection of indicators related to climate and environment has to be strengthened, given the impact of these factors on arboviruses’ presence and transmission. Moreover, besides being fundamental in the implementation of OH early warning surveillance strategies, data sharing using digitalized databases was in place only in a few cases. Nevertheless, to propose effective solutions appropriate to the context, the interpretation of the results should be guided by the understanding of the background. Within the context of the OHEJP MATRIX, another survey was performed: the purpose was the understanding and the mapping of surveillance activities in place against four food-borne pathogens, in all the sectors involved in four whole food production chains. The survey involved European countries and showed a very heterogeneous situation between countries and pathogens. To show this heterogeneity, results have been graphically mapped and displayed. As expected, the situation with the most differences between countries was observed in the wild boar meat food chain concerning HEV, which is an emerging threat in Europe and for which surveillance activities are still not harmonized. The two case studies described the settings for further actions. The next suggested step in the implementation of the OH approach should be pursued through additional country-based studies, to verify the most suitable target areas for the application of the OH, and prioritize the efforts.