UAB experts to participate in the CCVC's One Health Committee
Lecturers Maria dels Àngels Calvo, Maite Martin and Natàlia Majó form part of the new One Health Committee, created by the Council of the Veterinary Association of Catalonia (CCVC). The committee will act as a consulting agency for zoonotic diseases, transmitted from animals to humans, and will collaborate in the management and control of diseases such as Covid-19.
08/01/2021
The One Health concept, promoted by the European Union, indicates that human health, animal health and environmental health, as well as preventive medicine, are all interdependent and connected to the ecosystems with which they coexist. The Covid-19 pandemic has made it evident that our health is global and that pandemics must be dealt with from this perspective.
With the creation of the One Health Committee, the CCVC aims to offer a collaboration tool for the Catalan administration which makes even more visible the role of veterinarian professionals within the public health system, as well as strengthen their collaboration with the public administration. “We veterinarians can provide many benefits to the public health: the One Health Committee exists to serve society, public administrations and media channels by providing our knowledge and expertise”, explains CCVC President Ricard Parés.
The committee is formed by prestigious veterinarian professionals with years of experience, among which are three UAB researchers: Maria dels Àngels Calvo, professor of Animal Health at the Department of Animal Health and Anatomy; Natàlia Majó, lecturer at the same department and head of the Centre for Animal Health Research (CReSA) of the Institute for Agrofood Research and Technology (IRTA) and Maite Martín, lecturer at the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and President of the Conference of Deans of the Faculties of Veterinary Medicine of Spain (CDVE). Also forming part of the committee is researcher Lorenzo José Fraile, lecturer at the University of Lleida (UdL).
A total of 60% of infectious diseases originate from animals and therefore, zoonosis represents a constant challenge for the public health system. When a disease affects the whole of a population, there is a need to deal with the disease from an epidemiological perspective regardless of the animal species it affects. This is where veterinarians can provide their experience and knowledge in the management and control of contagious diseases.
The sanitary policies applied by veterinarians to animal production has aided in making human diseases which were previously highly prevalent no longer a problem. Some examples of this are tuberculosis and brucellosis; today, this applies to the West Nile virus, which is currently a challenge. For this reason, it is e for vessential for veterinarians to form part of interdisciplinary teams working to prevent and fight against these epidemics.