A new event for students at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) is striving to change that fact. The One Health Leadership Experience will bring together a selection of first- and second-year students from each of the university's eight health science colleges and schools for an on campus workshop from August 24 to 26.
Initiated by the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and supported by Pfizer Animal Health, the program will help U of S students in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nutrition, kinesiology, public health, physical therapy, nursing and veterinary medicine learn that the core of being a successful health practitioner involves applying One Health.
The global movement encourages all health professionals to work collaboratively for the benefit of animal, human and environmental health.
"At the end of the day, everything we do has the potential to have an impact on animals, people or the environment," says Dr. Brian Evans, chief food safety officer and chief veterinary officer for Canada.
Evans is one of five speakers that will work alongside more than 100 students who are participating in the U of S event. He hopes to use this opportunity to facilitate an appreciation of a One Health culture among current and future generations of health practitioners.
Dr. Brian Evans: "As a health professional, there's a very basic ethical and moral responsibility to practise One Health."
"It's critical that health students build a peer network – a circle of interdependence – that allows them to think in a very horizontal, integrated way to assess complex health problems," says Evans.
"Not one person or discipline can solve all these problems," agrees Dr. Mark Raizenne, director general of Canada's Centre for Food-borne, Environmental and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, within the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Raizenne, another One Health leader who will speak at the workshop, encourages this cross-disciplinary training through educating new students on one another's area of influence. As he points out, bringing disciplines together can be challenging and each needs to understand their role and function.
"One Health is an opportunity to forge linkages across disciplines that would not just improve each health practitioner's own personal and professional knowledge, but it's the right way to tackle very difficult problems at the local, national or international level."
For example, when West Nile virus first emerged in the United States and Canada, there was an urgent need to build a collective response among all health professions and to gain control over a disease that affects many species, including wild and domestic birds, horses and humans.
"We saw animal health, public health and wildlife health professionals across multiple jurisdictions come together very quickly to recognize the threat of this new agent," says Evans.
He adds that the various disciplines worked together to establish a surveillance program that aided in creating an early warning system for the control of West Nile virus.
Raizenne plans to discuss a case study compilation entitled One Health for One World: A Compendium of Case Studies with students at the workshop. Veterinarians Without Borders/Vétérinaires Sans Frontières prepared the document at the request of and with support from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The 100-page document details several hot topics of health from around the world ranging from food-borne and waterborne infections to avian influenza and the pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 virus.
Each case study examines the animal-human-ecosystem dynamics and emphasizes why each particular health problem is an appropriate candidate for a One Health approach.
But One Health is much more than combating infectious diseases.
"It's also a good paradigm to promote the social determinants of health – the other factors that play a role in overall community health such as education, nutrition or socioeconomic issues," says Raizenne.
He adds that One Health's economic benefits are highlighted in World Bank publications that address the economic advantages of early intervention and prevention using the global approach.
One Canadian example is rabies control: for many decades, Canada had one of the world's highest incidences of rabies. In response, the country created wildlife vaccine bait programs and regular rabies vaccinations became routine for companion animals.
Through these initiatives, exposure of people to rabies was greatly reduced and the disease in humans has become rare.
"From an economic perspective, it only costs tens of dollars to vaccinate a companion animal for rabies as opposed to hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat an exposed human," says Evans.
"It (rabies) really exemplifies a demonstrable cost-benefit ratio and how mitigating the consequence of human exposure can promote savings in the health care system which is an overall public good."
One Health is truly a global effort as proven by the numerous meetings arranged worldwide that bring together One Health advocates. Raizenne recently attended one such meeting in Santiago, Chile.
"The Ministers of Health and Agriculture of the Americas invited the Environment Ministers of the Americas to discuss how countries are addressing anything from coffee-growing to animal disease management under a One Health concept," he says.
Dr. Mark Raizenne: "This is a really great initiative that's unique in terms of demonstrating the leadership of the U of S by bringing health science students together."
On the flip side, One Health also plays a critical role at the individual level.
"As a health professional, there's a very basic ethical and moral responsibility to practise One Health," says Evans.
"For example, the veterinary oath emphasizes the need to manage the health and welfare of animals as well as the health of humans and the environment associated with animal production and food."
Evans' primary goal for students attending the One Health workshop is to have them understand that working in the field of medicine is not just about biological science.
"It really does involve social science, economic science and environmental science," he says. "These things are interconnected and they're very much a part of successful management of human, animal and ecosystem health."
And although the workshop is aimed at students, Evans hopes to gain some knowledge himself while taking part.
"It would be unfortunate and unrealistic for me to participate in something like this and not learn something myself," he says. "I'm looking forward to the learning and what I can share with others."
With its tight focus on One Health and leadership, Raizenne says the U of S program is the first of its kind in Canada.
"This is a really great initiative that's unique in terms of demonstrating the leadership of the U of S by bringing health science students together," he adds.
"I certainly look forward to seeing what happens at this meeting and hopefully we can build beyond it as we move forward."
Robyn Thrasher of Edmonton, Alta., is a third-year veterinary student at the WCVM. Robyn is a WCVM research communications intern as well as a summer student in the WCVM Veterinary Medical Centre during the summer of 2012.