USDA Embraces One Health Approach for Solving Problems Associated with Antimicrobial Resistance

Posted by Dr. Catherine Woteki, USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, on November 16, 2015 at 4:00 PM

See more at: http://blogs.usda.gov/2015/11/16/usda-embraces-one-health-approach-for-solving-problems-associated-with-antimicrobial-resistance/#sthash.JcFLLELU.dpuf

This week is World Antibiotic Awareness Week and USDA remains focused on prolonging the usefulness of a very precious resource—antibiotics.  These medicines successfully treat and prevent infectious diseases and must be used responsibly to remain effective to all who need them.  USDA also recognizes that antimicrobial resistance, or the ability of bacteria and other microbes to survive the effects of an antibiotic and then proliferate, is a serious threat to both animal health and human health.

Earlier this year, the World Health Assembly developed a global action plan to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).  The five objectives of the plan are: Increasing awareness, strengthening research and surveillance, reducing infections, optimizing antimicrobial use, and ensuring sustainable investments to contain AMR.

At USDA, we use a One Health approach that embraces the idea that a problem such as AMR arising at the intersection of the health of humans, animals, and the environment can be solved only through a coordinated multidisciplinary approach.

Within USDA, there are eight agencies engaged in addressing some aspect of AMR: the Agricultural Research Service, the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Economic Research Service, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Foreign Agricultural Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, and the National Institutes for Food and Agriculture. Our One Health Joint Working Group within USDA coordinates the work of these agencies for a comprehensive approach to address multiple facets of the issue.

Last year, USDA developed an AMR Action Plan based on broad stakeholder and federal partner feedback. The USDA AMR Action Plan outlines USDA’s current activities across USDA agencies and proposes a comprehensive, integrated approach for future activities that includes monitoring and surveillance; research and development; and education and outreach. Data collection through monitoring and surveillance provides the fuel for targeting research into epidemiology, ecology, and preventive health approaches allowing for development of critical mitigation strategies. Education and outreach are necessary to spread the word and enhance implementation of findings.

USDA’s AMR Action Plan provides the details of USDA’s responsibilities outlined in the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (CARB) National Action Plan, developed with our federal partners. In both of these plans, we take advantage of the strengths of our existing activities and collective experience in animal agriculture and describe additional work necessary to fill knowledge gaps. 

Our understanding of the factors that contribute to development of infectious disease, which includes those that are resistant to antibiotics in various settings, is incomplete. Agricultural systems are diverse and complex even within a specific commodity group. To identify and apply effective mitigation strategies, it is critical for many disciplines to work together to improve our understanding of where pathogens originate, how they interact in the environment, and how we can effectively diminish their occurrence. A “One-Health” approach is needed to prevent, not just react to, complex public and animal health issues. We also recognize that for prevention to be effective, we need to invest resources in a variety of strategies.  Risk management requires collaboration among human, animal, and environmental sectors.

The theme of the World Antibiotic Awareness Week campaign this year is, Antibiotics: Handle with Care. You can find what some of our stakeholders are doing to preserve this valuable resource through a Fact Sheet distributed during the White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship held June 2, 2015.

33 Prominent U.S. and international individual and organizational One Health Endorsements (multidisciplinary) – June 2011 to October 2015

Posted One Health Initiative website – NEWS page (scroll back)

See Complete list: http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/publications/One%20Health%20Endorsements%20June%202011%20to%20October%202015.pdf

A “must see” comprehensive One Health audio/video viewpoint [1 hour] for physicians, veterinarians, health scientists and researchers, political leaders, media and laypersons worldwide...especially human cancer patients (past, present and future)!

Keynote Presentation One Health Challenges For The 21st Century [Cancer etc.]

Published on Jun 22, 2015

“On April 7-8, 2015, the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) in the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, sponsored a workshop on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus entitled, One Health: Integrating the Veterinarian Scientist into the Biomedical Research Enterprise.

One Health is defined as the integrative effort of multiple disciplines working together to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. The purpose of the workshop was to identify how the concept of One Health can advance the NIH mission in regard to both basic and applied research, including training of the biomedical work force, concentrating on the veterinarian scientist.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU57lvXTqG8 

[Encompasses the internationally acknowledged “One Health Umbrella” concept http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/OneHealth2]

Communicated by:

*Carolyn J. Henry, DVM, MS, DACVIM

http://www.vmth.missouri.edu/henry_carolyn.htm

Interim Associate Director of Research; Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, Facilitator, One Health/One Medicine;
Office of the Provost, Professor of Oncology; Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, University of Missouri (USA)
Professor of Oncology [cancer]
Department of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine and Division of Hematology/Oncology, School of Medicine
Director, Tom and Betty Scott Endowed Program in Veterinary Oncology

http://www.vmth.missouri.edu/henry_carolyn.htm

*Dr. Henry, a veterinarian, is a longstanding One Health Supporter/advocate http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/supporters.php and serves on the U.S. One Health Commission (OHC) Council of Advisors https://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/leadership/council_of_advisors/.

One Health approach implementation supported...

Hudson Institute Report

NATIONAL BLUEPRINT FOR BIODEFENSE:AND MAJRORM

BIPARTISAN REPORT OF THE BLUE RIBBON

STUDY PANEL ON BIODEFENSE

Released October 28, 2015

Report in full: http://www.biodefensestudy.org/SiteAssets/Pages/default/1425-2139_BRSP_Report_100815b%5b1%5d%5b6%5d.pdf 

TABLE 1: RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTION ITEMS

Integrate animal health and One Health approaches into biodefense strategies.

Recommendation 7

a Institutionalize One Health.

b Develop a nationally notifiable animal disease system.

c Prioritize emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.

III. RECOGNIZING AND INSTITUTIONALIZING

THE ONE HEALTH CONCEPT

See pages 19 & 20

“...A One Health approach can also inform priorities for human infectious diseases. When it became clear in 2014 that no countermeasures for Ebola were ready for the largest Ebola outbreak the world had ever seen, many policy conversations that followed were about priorities. We must have a means of determining what to fund with finite resources. The threats and risks among agents of both bioterror and emerging infectious diseases are equally serious. MTDs have been very important for the prioritization of activities around biodefense, yet there is no analogous prioritization system for emerging diseases....”

“Recommendation 7 –[See page 21]

Integrate animal health and One Health approaches into biodefense strategies. Effective solutions for defense against emerging infectious disease and bioterror

threats lie at the interface of human, animal, and environmental health.

ACTION ITEMS:

a. Institutionalize One Health. The White House should lead all relevant agencies to a new level of understanding, planning, and operating with respect to biodefense that includes an animal health and, more broadly, a One Health mindset. The Vice President

should direct the NSC to review all strategic biodefense documents to ensure that animal health and environmental health agencies are identified and assigned responsibility, and that their activities are fully aligned and coordinated with other biodefense activities and are current with respect to new science and evidence.

b. Develop a nationally notifiable animal disease system. The Administrator of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), working with the Director of the Department of the Interior (DOI) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other partners as appropriate, should develop a nationally notifiable animal disease list and implement a reporting system for states, localities, territories, tribes, and other owners of disease information. USDA should afford DHS, HHS, and other agencies engaged in biodefense access to the data in this system.

c. Prioritize emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of Defense, should prioritize emerging infectious disease threats. They should consider using a multi-criteria decision analysis tool and transparent methodology to develop these determinations. They should address pathogens and

pathogen families with the potential to cause a catastrophic public health emergency sufficient to affect national security, including agents known to infect wildlife and domestic animals. The list should drive funding in surveillance, response planning, MCM development, and any activities revealed as gaps per action item 3e.”

A Critically Relevant One Health/PUBLIC HEALTH approach – revisited…      

New vaccines needed for pathogens infecting animals and humans: One Health - Dr. Thomas P. Monath

Note: Thomas P. Monath, MD http://paxvax.com/about/executive-team/thomas-p-monath-md; http://paxvax.com/sites/default/files/pdf/vaccinenation-2014-most-influential-people-in-vaccines.pdf, an eminent physician virologist/vaccine developer, is also a co-founder of the One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono team (OHI) and the One Health Initiative website.

Published on May 1, 2013

World Vaccine Congress & Expo 2013

“Dr Thomas P. Monath, Adjunct Professor at Harvard School of Public Health gives his presentation on 'New vaccines needed for pathogens infecting animals and humans: One Health'.

The World Vaccine Congress & Expo is now in its 13th year and is the biggest and most comprehensive event for the industry. Covering everything from the latest R&D to manufacturing to the corporate development strategies you'll be sure to find answers to all your questions.”

SEE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaADs7b2svc [This is instructive and sets the stage for understanding]

Following this talk, in October 2013 the OHI posted more details about this issue:

Vaccines against diseases transmitted from animals to humans: A one health paradigm

“This review focuses on the immunization of animals as a means of preventing human diseases (zoonoses). …”

In simple terms, the idea is to develop vaccines that protect domestic animals and wildlife thereby establishing effective barriers against human infections.  Developing animal vaccines are less expensive and are less strictly regulated than are those for humans.  Hopefully a common sense One Health approach can go forward. http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/publications/Thomas%20P.%20Monath,%20MD%20Sept%202013%20One%20Health%20Vaccine%20Article.pdf  

Originally Posted One Health Initiative NEWS page October 9, 2013 - http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/news.php?query=+A+potential+large+scale+%93One+Health+in+Action%94+...+another+dynamic+case+for+implementing+One+Health%21+ 

*Vaccines against diseases transmitted from animals to humans: A one health paradigm

MediLabSecure Endorses One Health

Please see http://medilabsecure.com/public.aspx?page=one_health_initiative

...The MediLabSecure project aims at consolidating a Laboratory Network on the emerging viruses that are pathogens for humans and/or animals. It will represent a cluster for awareness, risk assessment, monitoring and control of these vector borne diseases. This cluster will require the interaction of four laboratory sub-networks, one for human health, one for animal health, one for entomology and one for public health reinforcement. ... full description in http://medilabsecure.com/project_context.html

MediLabSecure is a product of The Institut Pasteur which “was opened on November 14, 1888 thanks to Louis Pasteur’s international appeal for funds. He now had the facilities to extend vaccination against rabies, continue research on infectious diseases and share the resulting knowledge.” See more at: http://www.pasteur.fr/en/institut-pasteur/history#sthash.2AP894LH.dpuf and http://www.pasteur.fr/en.

A timely One Health issue today (2015) as it was in 2014...

Bella Moss Foundation’s – Antibiotic Resistance “Speakers from the One Health Conference 13^th October 2014 Royal Society of Medicine”

Beginning with prominent Public Health/One Health physician, David L. Heymann, MD – Editor, Control of Communicable Diseases Manual and Director, U.K. Health Protection Agency (United Kingdom). 

Please see and listen to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMnITrOEMBc

Dr. Heymann is also a member of the One Health Initiative team’s Honorary Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php.

Please read Bella Moss Foundation’s webinar link fighting the battle of multidrug resistant infections http://www.thebellamossfoundation.com/vets/ and http://www.thebellamossfoundation.com/vets/vets-links/.

Note: The American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP) http://www.aaphp.org/onehealth supports and advocates the One Health approach.

Human Bone Cancer ONE HEALTH model using dogs…

Vet. Sci. 2015, 2(3), 210-230; doi:10.3390/vetsci2030210

Comparative Aspects of Osteosarcoma Pathogenesis in Humans and Dogs

Timothy M. Fan, DVM, PhD http://illinois.edu/ds/search?search_type=userid&search=t-fan&skinId=333  and Chand Khanna, DVM, PhD https://ccr.cancer.gov/chand-khanna  

¹ Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, Comparative Oncology Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61820, USA ² Tumor and Metastasis Biology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Clinical Research, The National Cancer Institute, Washington, DC 20004, USA

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Published:  August 17, 2015

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comparative Pathogenesis of Cancers in Animals and Humans)

View Full-Text   |   Download PDF [316 KB, uploaded 17 August 2015]

Abstract

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a primary and aggressive bone sarcoma affecting the skeleton of two principal species, human beings and canines. The biologic behavior of OS is conserved between people and dogs, and evidence suggests that fundamental discoveries in OS biology can be facilitated through detailed and comparative studies. In particular, the relative genetic homogeneity associated with specific dog breeds can provide opportunities to facilitate the discovery of key genetic drivers involved in OS pathogenesis, which, to-date, remain elusive. In this review, known causative factors that predispose to the development OS in human beings and dogs are summarized in detail. Based upon the commonalities shared in OS pathogenesis, it is likely that foundational discoveries in one species will be translationally relevant to the other and emphasizes the unique opportunities that might be gained through comparative scientific approaches.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases (CEEZAD) - http://www.ceezad.org/

World News

An Exciting Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology

October 12, 2015

“The 2015 Nobel Prize awards in Medicine and Physiology are exciting for many reasons. The three recipients-two microbiologists and a pharmacologist-all working with natural compounds, developed therapies to fight various parasites, making remarkable contributions to human and animal health. This linking of human, animal and environmental medicine, known as "One Health" has become an essential focus in effective medical research and practice. ...

... Underlying these awards and the on-going research is the reality that efficacious medicine in the twenty-first century is carried out by teams of scientists, doctors and nurses grounded in a One Health-based awareness that the environment, human medicine and animal medicine are a seamlessly interconnected web.”

Read more [http://www.ceezad.org/resources/index.html]

Note: Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases

A Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Center of Excellence
Kansas State University • Dept of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology
1800 Denison Ave Mosier Hall K224 • Manhattan, KS • 66506-5606 • 785-532-2793

Also see CEEZAD’s outstanding interdisciplinary “One Health” collaborators http://www.ceezad.org/about/partner.html and resources’ links http://www.ceezad.org/resources/links.html.