The “Only one health” concept was introduced in the early 2000s, with the desire to summarize in very few words a fact recognized over a hundred years ago: human health and animal health are interdependent and they are linked to the ecosystems in which they coexist. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE, 1924) supports and applies this focus as a global collaborative approach to address human and animal health, respect to domestic or wild animals, and ecosystems.

Diseases of animal origin to which man is sensitive, such as avian influenza, rabies, Rift Valley fever or brucellosis, represent global risks to public health. Other diseases transmitted essentially from person to person circulate in animals or have an identified animal reservoir and can cause serious health crises as has been painfully evident, in the epidemic caused by the Ebola virus and the current pandemic caused by SARS-CoV -2. These risks are accentuated by globalization and climate changes, which multiply the opportunities for pathogens to colonize new territories and evolve in new forms.

According to the OIE, at present, it is estimated that 60% of the diseases of infectious etiology that affect man are zoonotic. At least 75% of the pathogen’s agents of emerging infectious diseases in humans are of animal origin. Every year, five new diseases that affect man appear, of which three are of animal origin. It should also be noted that 80% of pathogens that can be used for bioterrorism are zoonotic.

The control of all zoonotic pathogens (transmissible from animals to humans and vice versa) in their animal origin is the most effective and economical solution to protect humans. Therefore, the protection of public health must be based on the development of global strategies for the prevention and control of pathogens, coordinated at the animal-man-ecosystems interface and applicable at the global, regional and national levels through the implementation of appropriate policies.

Veterinary Services, including their public and private components, have an essential role in the development and implementation of health risk management policies. By protecting animal health and welfare, Veterinary Services contribute to improving human health. We must also consider its indisputable role in controlling food safety.

The concept “One health” implies a point of view destined to design and apply programs, policies, laws and research in which specialists in various fields collaborate in order to achieve correct public health.

Bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses affect both animals and humans when both coexist in the same ecosystem. Efforts by just one sector cannot prevent or eliminate the problem.

Professionals from various specialties who carry out active work in different sectors, such as public health, animal health, plant health and the environment, must join forces to support the reality defined as One Health.

Likewise, and in order to prevent and detect outbreaks of zoonoses and food contamination problems and respond to them, the different sectors must share epidemiological and laboratory data. Government officials, researchers and practitioners from all sectors at the local, national, regional and global levels must jointly respond to health threats.

WHO, works closely with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to promote multisectoral responses to food safety hazards, zoonosis risks and other threats to public health in the interaction between humans, animals and the ecosystem and provide guidance on how to reduce these risks.

We must remember that Louis Pasteur already said: “The doctor has historically taken care of man and the veterinarian has done it of humanity.”

The work of the veterinarian includes, first of all, his responsibility to lead the fight for the eradication of epizootic and zoonotic diseases of great sanitary importance both for their spread, clinical and outcome, as well as for their economic impact. In this sense, recently the Director General of FAO has requested the authorities of the various countries, the incorporation of veterinarians, as specialists in animal health, in the prevention and control of the pandemic caused by SARS-Cov-2, in the context of “One Health”.

Veterinarians are health personnel, but they have not been required to be part of the teams responsible for the control of the current pandemic at the state level, unlike what has happened in other European countries.

In Spain, it is estimated at almost 40,000, the number of veterinarians, who are distributed in various sectors. One part, in the primary sector, livestock and aquaculture, to provide the population with safe food. Another important number of veterinarians dedicate their efforts to ensure the health, correct nutrition and well-being of animals, improving their productions so that they are safe, profitable and sustainable.

They also play a prominent role in the food chain, protecting food safety through sanitary inspection and control in slaughterhouses, food industries and establishments selling to the final consumer, such as in retail stores and collective catering.

Undoubtedly, one of the functions in which the veterinarian is most identified is in clinical centers, taking care of the health of pets, preventing their diseases and curing their pathologies, developing their work in primary care centers that should be considered as members of the epidemiological surveillance network.

It is also worth mentioning the role of veterinarians in sports and leisure animal medicine and surgery, in analysis laboratories and in research centers. In the latter, it is fair to highlight their collaboration in the incessant search to obtain and validate, among others, vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2. As well as their active participation in the trials of new drugs and new applications of other that are already part of the current therapeutic arsenal. We must also remember their essential presence in customs control and border inspection posts, as well as in the management and recovery of wildlife, and in the protection of the environment.

Undoubtedly one of the functions of the veterinarian, which is part of its reason for being, is prevention, controlling and eradicating the appearance of zoonotic diseases.

The veterinary profession has made a historic commitment that is summarized in the motto that it provides on its shield: Higia pecoris, salus populi (animal hygiene is human health).

With the sanitary and service spirit inherent to the fundamental purpose of Veterinary Medicine, the Spanish Veterinary Collegiate Organization (OCV) has constituted a Working group, made up of scientists who are experts in epidemiology, infectious diseases, Microbiology and Immunology.

The group of experts has as its main function: “To advise on the evolution and control of the pandemic and the relationship of the virus with people and animals”, taking into account the premise that veterinarians are health workers who not only work with animals, but also who have extensive experience in managing epidemics, shared or not with people.

They state that: “Due to their daily work and research activity, veterinarians know well how to deal with communicable infections. Concepts such as biosafety, movement control or massive diagnostic tests are part of their day to day “.

The pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 shows that there is only ‘One Health’ and that collaboration between medicine, veterinary medicine and ecology is more necessary than ever “.

In this sense, several experts claim that the scientific committee studying how to fight the pandemic incorporates ecological and veterinary perspectives, since people’s health is highly dependent on the state of ecosystems and biodiversity.

“The premise of One Health is right now an absolute necessity to tackle the crisis. This concept means that there are no differences between the health of people, that of animals and that of the environment, because they are related to each other. If one fails, the others too”, stated Luis Alberto Calvo, President of the Spanish Veterinary Organization (Colvet).

Animal health is essential to understand the appearance of this type of viral outbreak, but this, according to the premises of One Health, is influenced by the state of environmental health and the wealth of ecosystems.

The incorporation of an academic plurality to the scientific committees allows a multiple approach to control the virus from all its perspectives, as well as to understand its origin to avoid the appearance of new outbreaks.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Veterinary Association (WVA) have jointly drawn attention to the roles and responsibilities of the veterinary profession in public health. The specific veterinary activities that are key to guaranteeing food safety, disease prevention and emergency management stand out.

As Dr. Arenas points out, “Rarely has the help in the management of epidemics come from the most experienced healthcare professional in the successful control and eradication of collective diseases: the veterinarian. And where it has been done, the results have always been better. As in China and Germany, for example, in this crisis”.

It should be taken into account that when a disease affects an individual, it must be treated by a medical specialist, be it a human doctor or a veterinarian, but when the disease affects the entire population, it must be approached from an epidemiological perspective. Thanks to the action of the veterinarian, several diseases have been eradicated, many of them highly transmissible and very serious, and even some zoonotic. Likewise, Dr. Arenas, highlights that in the case of the current epidemic, for which we do not have effective treatments or vaccines, as occurs with African swine fever, early detection and the application of adequate contingency plans are the best tools for its control.

In animal health, in order to detect any health problem early, different epidemiological surveillance programs are available. All disease contingency plans detail common guidelines that promote detailed health strategies and general activities to be carried out by both official and private Veterinary Services, involved in the health emergency when an infectious disease occurs.

But, in veterinary medicine, contingency plans not only contemplate the technical measures necessary to control the outbreak, but also the economic measures for the affected sectors.

Veterinarians have very imbued in our genes the establishment of biosecurity measures for the populations we manage.

Other aspects that are of interest in the contingency of diseases are quarantines and compartmentalization (which would have meant a significant economic relief for areas with little or no incidence).

The veterinarian is a professional who has the vision of dealing with diseases from the point of view of the collective, much more than doctors, who generally are more accustomed to treating the individual. Ignoring and renouncing the contribution that our profession can make to the crisis, may mean making a serious mistake in its management. Other countries, such as Germany, China or the Faroe Islands, have had the contribution of veterinarians and the results are clearly more favorable with respect to Spain.

Undoubtedly, the veterinary professional is the one with the most experience in the control and eradication of diseases that affect the population as a whole. Throughout its history, Veterinary Medicine has had to face many diseases of great sanitary importance and with a huge economic impact, creating the international sanitary police. We all have in mind the mad cow crisis, Ebola, bird flu and other classic diseases where the role of the veterinarian is crucial such as brucellosis, tuberculosis, salmonellosis, listeriosis, rabies, trichinosis, toxoplasmosis and much more.

We conclude this brief reflection, with the words that the French Minister of Agriculture and Food Didier Guillaume, sent on April 9 to all veterinarians in the neighboring country and especially to clinical veterinarians, in the form of a letter:

“The global spread of COVID-19 places us in an unprecedented situation. A double challenge, health and economic. France has the necessary assets to overcome this challenge: it has quality infrastructure and can count on its forces, public and private, of which you veterinarians are a part. Your profession as veterinarians places you at the heart of the main problems, as strategic as the preservation of public and animal health, the guarantee of animal welfare and the guarantee of a healthy and quality diet.

I thank you, in view of the challenges of your profession, for your full mobilization. Because pursuing the double challenge, health and economic, is possible, and I know that I can count on your experience and skills to act with full responsibility, with rationality and pragmatism. I also know that many of you have mobilized to help the medical sector, in full solidarity, either through the supply of equipment or consumables, or the mobilization of nearly 5,000 veterinarians, ready to join the national health reserve. I have communicated with your representatives and we have talked about the “One Health” concept that makes perfect sense during this period.

The Government has been identifying what the veterinary sector could bring to the medical world, be it veterinary drugs or analytical skills in laboratories. The conversations held are aimed at being able to mobilize veterinary companies in the production of diagnostic kits for human medicine.

You are transmitters of important information to your public, since several people wonder about the possible risks related to companion animals. Really, an objective and scientific discourse is essential.

You fully contribute to the effort of the national community, and for this reason the State is with you in this difficult period. That is why I wanted to address you with a message of support and deep appreciation on behalf of the Government and France.

Ladies and gentlemen, please receive all my support and my sincere thanks. “

Let these words resonate in the veterinary world and serve as recognition and new impetus to continue dedicating all efforts in favor of One Health, applying the knowledge in foresight, research and service to society that characterize our health profession.

We demand that our authorities count on veterinary collaboration in scientific committees, which would undoubtedly allow us to contribute the recognized knowledge in prevention and public health of our experts.

*This article has been published in the journal of the Academy of Veterinary Sciences of Catalonia (ACVC, for its initials in Catalan) of the year 2020.