The One Health (OH) High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) of the Quadripartite Organizations defined OH as an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems.” It recognizes the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plan ... ts, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and interdependent [1]. The Tripartite which comprised the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) later became the Quadripartite organizations when the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) joined the OH alliance in 2022. There are Global and Regional Quadripartite Secretariats consisting of officials of headquarters and regional offices, respectively. Over the years, the Tripartite/Quadripartite organizations and other partner agencies have developed several OH assessment and operational tools to support Member States in assessing their core capacities to achieve compliance with the requirements of international standards such as the International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR), WOAH’s Terrestrial and Aquatic Animal Health Codes, World Trade Organization’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (WTO-SPS), FAO/WHO Codex standards, etc. Technical areas that the existing tools currently support include progress monitoring, coordination and collaboration mechanisms, and capacity building for prevention, detection, preparedness, and response to health threats emerging at human-animal-environment interface. More OH B operational tools are in the pipeline. more

For thousands of years, humans have been using wildlife for commercial and subsistence purposes. Wildlife trade takes place at local, national and international levels, with different forms of wildlife, such as live animals, partly processed products and finished products. Wildlife is a vital source ... of safe and nutritious food, clothing, medicine, and other products, in addition to having religious and cultural value. Wildlife trade also contributes to livelihoods, income generation and overall economic development. However, wildlife trade can have detrimental effects on species conservation, depleting natural resources, impoverishing biodiversity and degrading ecosystems (Morton et al., 2021). Wildlife trade, whether legal or illegal, regulated or unregulated, can pose threats to animal health and welfare. It also presents opportunities for zoonotic pathogens to spill over between wildlife and domestic animals, and for diseases to emerge with serious consequences for public or animal health and profound economic impacts (IPBES, 2020; Swift et al., 2007; Smith et al., 2009; Gortazar et al., 2014; Stephen, 2021; Stephen et al., 2022; FAO, 2020). The risk of pathogen spillover and disease emergence is amplified with increased interaction between humans, wildlife and domestic animals. The risk of pathogen spillover has also been exacerbated by climate change, intensified agriculture and livestock production, deforestation, and other land-use changes. Wildlife trade is also a risk to ecosystem biodiversity via the introduction of invasive species (Wikramanayake et al., 2021). Therefore, increased effort must be put into understanding the potential consequences of the wildlife trade, mapping and analysing the adjacent risks, and implementing strategies to manage those risks. Reducing wildlife-trade risks not only helps to limit disease but also minimises the negative effects of invasive species. Between 1960 and 2021, invasive alien species caused estimated cumulative damage of around 116 billion euros across 39 countries in the European Union alone, despite strict import regulations (Haubrock et al., 2021). The effect of invasive species is extremely apparent. more

The guide to implementing the One Health Joint Plan of Action (OH JPA) at national level provides practical guidance on how countries can adopt and adapt the OH JPA to strengthen and support national One Health action. Building on the OH JPA theory of change, this guide describes three pathways a ... nd five key steps to implement the OH JPA at national level: Pathway 1 -- Governance, policy, legislation, financing and advocacy Pathway 2 -- Organizational and institutional development, implementation and sectoral integration Pathway 3 -- Data, evidence, information systems and knowledge exchange. The stepwise approach comprises: Situation analysis including stakeholder mapping and review of existing assessment results Set-up/strengthening of a multisectoral, One Health coordination mechanism Planning for implementation, including activity prioritization and leveraging of resources Implementation of national One Health action plans Review, sharing and incorporation of lessons learned. more

Echinococcosis, or hydatid disease, is an infection caused by tapeworms of the genus Echinococcus, a tiny tapeworm just a few millimetres long. Five species of Echinococcus have been identified which infect a wide range of domestic and wild animals. Echinococcosis is a zoonosis, a disease of animals ... that affects humans. more

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