The following was graciously provided by:

Robert Taylor, Content Manager

Animal, Human & Social Sciences, CABI Head Office

Nosworthy Way

Wallingford

Oxfordshire

OX10 8DE

United Kingdom

News release

 Free access to world-renowned public health database to assist swine-flu effort

1 May 2009 

CABI today has announced free access to its specialist Global Health database – the definitive database for public health information – www.cabdirect.org/globalhealth

 Simultaneously CABI has developed a Swine flu 'dashboard' that brings together up-to-the-minute information on the virus (http://www.netvibes.com/cabialerts).The 'dashboard' includes resources from CABI and critical advice from key health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

 "Our mission is to help people worldwide through the provision of scientific knowledge," said Dr Trevor Nicholls, CEO of CABI. "Today we are offering our most applicable resource, over the coming weeks, to help health professionals and others working on the front line."

 In a fast changing sequence of events that has led to the rapid escalation of concern from WHO, and the reaction of national governments in considering their response to a possible influenza pandemic, release of the database is designed to give urgently needed support to those who need it most: scientists, medical professionals and health authorities investigating the causes and treatments of the disease and linkages to past outbreaks.

 Influenza researchers urgently need to be able to refer back to previous scientific work in this area to understand the behaviour of previous strains of the virus and to research effective mechanisms for handling earlier outbreaks.

 The Global Health database brings together global knowledge on every aspect of influenza since 1910. The knowledge it contains could provide a key weapon in health researchers' response in understanding and controlling the virus.

 Much of the data in Global Health is derived from publications that have long since vanished. They tell us a great deal about past pandemics, from rates and patterns of transmission, duration, timing of epidemiological peaks, geographical distribution of the disease, government preparedness and quarantine provisions through to effects on different age and social groups, severity in developing versus developed countries, symptoms, causes of mortality (secondary problems, especially pneumonia, were devastating in the Spanish flu) and mortality rates.

 By opening the door to a wealth of historical information on past pandemics, the Global Health database has the potential to reveal vital clues in the international fight against swine flu (influenza A – H1N1).

 Global Health database - www.cabdirect.org/globalhealth

CABI Swine Flu Dashboard - http://www.netvibes.com/cabialerts

 Media contact: Sarah Wilson, PR and Corporate Communications Manager, tel: +44 (0) 1491 829 361, mob: +44 (0) 7516 928 845, email: s.wilson@cabi.org

 Editor's notes

About CABI

CABI is a not-for-profit science-based development and information organization. Its mission and direction are influenced by member countries that help guide the activities undertaken. These include publishing; development projects and research; and microbial services. CABI produces key scientific information, including CAB Abstracts – the world-renowned bibliographic database covering agriculture and the environment. CABI also publishes multimedia compendia, books, e-books and full text internet resources aiming to further science and its application to real life. Our expertise includes animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, environmental sciences, human health, parasitology, mycology, crop protection, rural economics, rural development and leisure and tourism. For more information go to www.cabi.org

About the Global Health database

The Global Health database is published by CABI which has recorded public health and veterinary research since 1910. Global Health is the only specialist bibliographic abstracting and indexing database dedicated to public health research and practice. With more than two million records, Global Health is the definitive international public health database for academics, researchers, NGOs, policy makers, clinicians, healthcare professionals and students. The database covers all pathogens relevant to human health, including swine flu.

P Think Green - don't print this email unless you really need to

Heather K. Moberly, AHIP, Professor,

Veterinary Medicine Librarian

William E. Brock Memorial Library

Center for Veterinary Health Sciences

102 McElroy Hall

Oklahoma State University

Stillwater OK 74078-2013

405.744.6655

heather.k.moberly@okstate.edu

http://www.library.okstate.edu/vetmed  

The following News item was provided by:

Ronald D. Warner, DVM, MPVM, PhD, DACVPM, ACE
Assoc Professor (epidemiology, prev med, public health)
Dept of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine

Director, Travel Medicine Clinic
Texas Tech Univ. Health Sciences Center
3601 4th Street
Lubbock, TX  79430-8143

 OBITUARY: JANE BROTHERTON WALKER

A ProMED-mail post

<http://www.promedmail.org>

ProMED-mail is a program of the

International Society for Infectious Diseases <http://www.isid.org>

Date: Sun 19 Apr 2009

From: Gert J Venter <venterg@arc.agric.za>

Jane Brotherton Walker (expert acarologist), 1925-2009

 ------------------------------------------------------

Jane Brotherton Walker was born in Nairobi, Kenya on 31 Jan 1925. As a child growing up on a farm in Kenya Jane was home-schooled by her mother during her primary school years, and then went to England where she matriculated in 1944 at the County High School for Girls in Retford. Jane obtained BSc (Honours) and MSc degrees at Liverpool University in 1948 and 1959, and was awarded a DSc degree on her published works by the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1983.

Jane was first employed in 1949 in the Research Branch of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service as a research officer in the East African Veterinary Research Organization, Muguga, Kenya. She progressed in this organization to senior scientific officer and then principal scientific officer, before voluntarily retiring from Her Majesty's Service in 1966 to take up a post as senior professional officer at the Veterinary Research Institute, Onderstepoort, upon the retirement of Dr Gertrud Theiler. There, Jane spent the rest of her working life. At the Institute she progressed through the ranks of promotion to chief professional officer, chief veterinary researcher, and specialist scientist until her retirement on pension in 1990. After retirement she continued to work at Onderstepoort in an honorary capacity for 3 days a week until 1998. During her working life and even after her retirement Jane was sole, senior, or co-author of 53 scientific publications and 5 books (inter alia, The _Rhipicephalus_ species ticks of the World, 2000) and the descriptions of 18 new tick species. She illustrated many of the ticks that she described with meticulously executed line drawings.

Jane's prowess as a scientist was recognized by her peers and she received

3 of the most prestigious awards in the field of biological sciences in South Africa, namely the 1988 Elsdon-Dew Medal of the Parasitological Society of Southern Africa, for services rendered to Parasitology in Africa, the Agricultural Science and Technology Woman of the Year Award for 1998, and the Theiler Memorial Trust Award in 1998 for exceptional service rendered to Veterinary Science in Africa. Her scientific writing skills were soon recognized at Onderstepoort and she was a member of the Editorial Committee of the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research from 1969 until 2000, a function she performed punctiliously to the dismay, as well as to the advantage of many a sloppy author.

With Jane's death the scientific world has lost one of its most meticulous and experienced workers, and the field of tick taxonomy, particularly in Africa, will be infinitely poorer. Her friends have lost a true lady and a loyal friend.

Jane died peacefully at home in Pretoria on Friday morning 3 Apr 2009 while having tea with Ivan Horak.

[byline: Ivan G Horak]

- --Gert J Venter, Senior Researcher, PVVD, Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute Agricultural Research Council South Africa <venterg@arc.agric.za> <http://www.arc.agric.za>

Dynamic Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) and strong One Health Advocate Dies

Dr. Janis H. Audin (MS IL ’75, DVM IL '79), a champion of progressive veterinary medical journalism and “One Health” died April 22, 2009 following a long, courageous and difficult battle with pancreatic cancer. The world has lost a truly significant One Health leader and advocate.  Under her guidance, the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) implemented a ‘one-health wonders’ column that recognized and highlighted prominent One Health individuals among the medical and veterinary medical professions in the United States.  The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has lost a dedicated and gifted editor-in-chief.

Dr. Audin joined the editorial staff of the AVMA in 1985, as an assistant editor and was promoted to associate editor in 1989 and editor in 1994. She became the editor-in-chief of both the JAVMA and the American Journal of Veterinary Research in 1995.  Prior to that Dr. Audin practiced as an associate veterinarian in Calumet City, Ill., for four years,

During her tenure, Dr. Audin was noted for implementing procedural and technological changes in the journal to reduce costs, improve timeliness of publications, and promote readership interest and awareness. New features in the news section introduced under her leadership have made the journals more practice and public health-relevant.  For instance, Dr. Audin fostered the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) “Inspection Insights”—a public health oriented food safety monthly column related to meat, poultry and egg products—from 1996 through 1998.  She also increased international manuscript submissions.

On March 23, 2009 AVMA Executive Vice President Dr. W. Ron DeHaven named Dr. Audin as editor-in-chief emeritus of the Publications Division. Wisely, it also meant that Dr. Audin could continue contributing to the staff effort to ensure the high quality of the AVMA scientific journals while the Association began a comprehensive search for her successor.

Having observed the JAVMA editors-in-chief for 50 years, I consider her one of the best, if not the best of a most distinguished list.  Janis was a special personal friend and my soul mate with respect to dealing with life-threatening cancer.  I deeply mourn her loss and will miss her.

 Bruce Kaplan, DVM

Please see JAVMA NEWS article:

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF WILDLIFE VETERINARIANS

POSITION STATEMENT ON ONE HEALTH - APPROVED

Health care stewards of animals and humans face unprecedented challenges associated with emerging pathogens, loss of biodiversity, climate change, and explosive human population growth resulting in habitat loss and increased wildlife/human interactions.  About 60% of existing human pathogens, and more than 75% of those appearing over the past two decades, are zoonotic.  Many of these have a link with wildlife.  An interdisciplinary “One Health” approach is needed that involves veterinarians, physicians, biologists, public health experts, and environmental health professionals, working to collaboratively address health concerns associated with these complex issues. 

The concept of One Health, previously termed One Medicine, is not new; the concept was promoted by William Osler and Rudolf Virchow in the 1800s and was then revisited by Calvin Schwabe in the 1960s.  Recent health emergencies are revitalizing the concept for application today.  The conservation community, with leadership from organizations such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, is recognizing the importance of One Health.  Many human and animal medicine organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association, have endorsed the concept of One Health as a strategic need in health care transformation.  In light of the integral role of healthy wildlife in the conservation and health of all species, the position of the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians is presented in the following statements on One Health. 

The American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians recognizes that: 

·        The majority of recently emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, and many are linked to wildlife;

·        The rise in emerging and resurging infectious diseases threatens not only human and domestic animals, but also wildlife species and ecosystems;

·        By their very nature, the fields of veterinary and human medicine are complementary and synergistic in confronting, controlling, and preventing zoonotic diseases and their transmission among species; and

·        A One Health approach aims to promote and implement meaningful collaboration and communication between veterinary medicine, human medicine, wildlife management, and multiple allied disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals, and our shared environment. 

The American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians supports:

·        Promoting and implementing a One Health approach that includes wildlife health science as an essential component of multidisciplinary collaborations;

·        Monitoring, preventing, controlling and mitigating cross-species disease in ways that recognize wildlife as a casualty of disease as well as a potential reservoir;

·        Enhancing the capacity of international, federal, state, and local wildlife agencies, tribal nations, and non-governmental organizations to plan, prevent, and respond to wildlife disease using adaptive, holistic approaches that take the complex interaction between all species into full account;

·        Funding multidisciplinary efforts for the development of diagnostic methods, vaccines, treatments, and management actions for the prevention and control of diseases across species;

·        Developing educational and outreach programs that communicate and promote the importance of healthy wildlife and the role of wildlife veterinarians and wildlife biologists in One Health;

·        Applying additional regulation on trade and movement of wildlife and wildlife products in order to protect wildlife populations, while simultaneously decreasing the risk for disease movement, cross-species transmission, and development of novel host-pathogen relationships; and  

·        Disease management that restricts the mass culling of free-ranging wildlife to situations where there is multidisciplinary scientific consensus that a wildlife population poses an urgent, significant threat to human health, food security, or wildlife health more broadly.

Provided April 17, 2009 by:

Jonathan Sleeman, MA, VetMB, Dipl. ACZM, MRCVS

President, American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians (AAWV)

Wildlife Veterinarian

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

900 Natural Resources Drive, Suite 100
Charlottesville, VA 22903

April 13, 2009

ONE HEALTH NEWSLETTER - 2009 Spring Issue Published …

http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Environment/medicine/One_Health/OHNLSpring2009.pdf  

The One Health Newsletter’s 2009 Spring Issue is now published online.  It contains a variety of interesting and pertinent One Health articles.

Among items of note is the lead article entitled “Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida” by J. Glenn Morris Jr., MD, MPH & TM.  Dr. Morris is the director of the Institute.

Publication page of this website presents it in full.

Note: A "One Health" educational assist for future health and healthcare scientists.

Encouraging Middle School Students to Learn About Infectious Diseases Through Web-based Adventures

A report by the Federation of American Scientists in 2006 recognized the shift by government, business, and education to environments in which games play a greater role in learning. One of the recommendations from the report was that “Educational institutions need to transform organizational systems and instructional practices to take greater advantage of new technology, including games.” Through previous NIH/NIAID R25 education grants to Dr. Leslie Miller, innovative materials to teach middle school students about infectious diseases and the microbes that cause them was developed. The product has come to be known as MEDMYST, which is an abbreviation for “medical mysteries”. Currently, MEDMYST is a series of five web adventures delivered via the Internet and designed to engage students in problem-solving activities not likely to be encountered elsewhere. A Spanish language version of the medical missions is also available on the web. There are also MEDMYST magazines and classroom activities for teachers, and each of these components is available free of charge on the web site (http://medmyst.rice.edu). All components are aligned with content from the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996) and Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS, 1993). Results of extensive field testing of these materials have shown this approach to be a very successful teaching tool.

Based upon the success of this model, the development of Mission 6 is underway. The purpose of Mission 6 is to introduce players (primarily 5^th to 8^th graders) to the concept of a “discovery-to-control” continuum for zoonotic diseases. The focus is on the discovery part of the continuum, and includes relevant material on epidemiology, etiology, and discovery of a new viral disease. The format allows the highlighting of careers in science and health, and reinforces science process skills for successful completion of the game/story. Mission 6 also sets the stage for the next mission, which will focus on the control portion of the discovery-to-control continuum, and will include concepts like vector control, the use of diagnostic tools, and vaccine development.

Provided by:

Kimberly Schuenke, PhD, Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX; kischuen@utmb.edu

Leslie Miller, PhD, Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning, Rice University, Houston, TX; lmm@rice.edu

Supported by a grant 2R25AI062762-03 from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Rome Comparative Oncology Centre – a new One Health Initiative in Italy

Dr. Romano Zilli has informed us today April 7, 2009 about the establishment of a “Centre for Comparative Oncology” in Rome, Italy that involves the Medical and Veterinary Medical local services.  It is being run by the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Lazio e Toscana and Tor Vergata University of Rome (Medicine Faculty).  This is an exciting and visionary One Health development.

• Centre for Comparative Oncology in Rome

A pilot study:

• A collaboration between IZSLT (Institute for Animal Health and Food Safety Rome), University of Rome Tor Vergata and Local Health Unit Rome B
• To study classification and nomenclature in liaison with National Reference Centre for animal oncology with a view to arriving at a system that is generally agreed.
• To assemble, tentatively define histopathologically, and selectively store animal tumor material and data.
• To collate and analyze relevant epidemiological data and to feed a database on obtained material available to researchers, epidemiologists, industry.
• To supply reference preparations and study sets to recognized institutions, veterinary and human, when feasible to do so.
• To advise on and perform identification and classification of animal tumoral material submitted by laboratories and clinics.
• To prepare and maintain a bibliographical reference system on animal tumors.

Provided by:

Romano Zilli, DVM
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale
Regioni Lazio e Toscana
V. Appia Nuova 1411
00178 Roma
www.izslt.it

Important New Kansas State University Website Announced – March 20, 2009

Welcome!  Kansas State University is proud to offer a unique blend of public health education opportunities for our state and beyond.  This website provides you up-to-date, comprehensive information about the Master of Public Health Program, whether you are a prospective student, current student, faculty member, alumni, or friend and advocate of public health education.  Please look at our program and let us know of any assistance we can give. 

Mike Cates, DVM, MPH
Director, Master of Public Health Program

http://www.k-state.edu/mphealth

See link to One Health Initiative website.

Posted March 2009 on American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine e-Jobs, Vol 2: http://www.acvpm.org/  Am