BioScience issue details challenges and future goals for One Health framework

The health of humans, wildlife, and the environment are inextricably linked, and a new article in the journal BioScience outlines what it will take to address that reality. "Key Challenges and Future Research, Education, and Policy Questions in One Health," led by Mary Ann Ottinger of the University of Houston, introduces BioScience's One Health Special Issue and reflects the central questions raised by the issue's authors. Ottinger edited the collection with Geoffrey M. Henebry, Meghann Jarchow, Rodney Keenan, Anna Monfils, Katey Pelican, Pim Martens, Paige S. Warren, and Editor in Chief Charles B. Fenster.

One Health began with a focus on pathogen spillover from wildlife to humans. The framework has since been expanded to include issues such as pollutants, habitat loss, land use, and other anthropogenic stressors. The article groups the field's challenges into seven areas: disease, agriculture, nature-based approaches and solutions, Indigenous and community issues, education, the One Health conceptual framework, and policy. Topics range from the search for the ebolavirus reservoir and the effect of invasive plants on tick-borne disease to prairie strips in Midwestern cropland, seagrass meadows, wildland fire, and the century-old US Lacey Act.

The editors hope that the collection will reach readers beyond the journal's usual audience. "We challenge our traditional readership to consider the direct connection between our work and the health of our families, neighbors, and communities," the authors write.

Several contributors warn against weakening the scientific infrastructure that One Health depends on. Citing recent US funding cuts, the authors state, "Now is not the time to divest from our critical scientific infrastructure." Others emphasize partnership with the people who manage land. "Farmers should be treated as key actors and equal partners in halting the loss of biodiversity," they write.

On policy, the authors conclude that "constant vigilance through increasing public awareness of the consequences of policy changes is necessary to maintain positive momentum towards achieving One Health goals."

Source:

American Institute of Biological Sciences

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