Titles and Abstracts

Global travel has ensured that unanticipated risks in the form of pandemic influenza outbreaks, and ‘exotic’ animal infections (e.g. Blue Tongue virus, West Nile Fever virus) are becoming common hazards. Pathogens derived from animals cause approximately 60% of all recognised human diseases and 75% of newly emerging infectious diseases, and therefore veterinary medicine can be regarded as fundamentally a “human health activity”. There is an urgent need to focus on multidisciplinary approaches towards zoonotic disease, involving both veterinary and medical schools. Without such close collaboration, we will fail to deliver appropriately trained professionals to the global healthcare team. This holistic approach to diseases in man and animals is described as “One Health”. This year a worldwide strategy, the “One Health Initiative”, has been published (http://onehealthinitiative.com/) which strongly encourages better links between scientists, physicians and veterinarians, and has been endorsed by most of the major health organisations and health agencies. In the UK, the Royal Society has released a Policy Document detailing the requirement for our scientific community to take a more integrated approach to infectious disease (RS Policy Document 2/-09) to achieve substantial improvements in public health leadership. Both of these publications state that one of the primary goals is to develop joint educational programmes between medical and veterinary schools.