Interpretive Summary: The One Health approach: reinventing our past knowledge to provide a sustainable future

By: Elsio A Wunder, Jr.

Implications:

• Animal, human, plant, and environmental health are intrinsically linked and are interdependent. Acting on ONE affects ALL.
• Collaboration between all sectors of our society is essential to prevent diseases, improve health, and provide a sustainable future with a well-balanced ecosystem.
• There is a need to change the way we address the complexity of threats and risks we face currently. Traditional medicine and health approaches, either human, veterinary, or ecological, will not provide a comprehensive answer. The One Health approach recognizes the interconnectedness of all sectors and is a valuable tool to achieve broader success.
• The One Health approach is internationally recognized and already a global reality. However, it is essential to push this approach to the forefront of our activities to improve health. There is a need to advance the One Health approach into the curriculum of schools, colleges, and universities, while engaging community partners and professionals from all areas, from social to basic science, to work toward sustainable and efficient solutions for health.

One Health–An Ancient Concept

For centuries, native and indigenous populations around the globe interacted with their surroundings as part of their daily live routines to hunt and harvest for nourishment, to celebrate, and to survive. They understood that their actions had major consequences on crops, animals, rivers, and forests. They lived in harmony with nature to find a balance for their own healthy and long lives. Then came maritime expansion, colonization, urbanization, globalization, and somewhere along the way we lost the respect and connection with nature. But this ideal and this concept of connection was engraved in our memory and present around us, it just needed to be rediscovered and properly explored.

Read more in the latest issue of Animal Frontiers: One Health for a Sustainable Future.