One Health is an approach that emphasizes the connections between human, animal and environmental health. The thinking is that these three areas – people, animals and the environment – are so closely intertwined that the health of one area directly or indirectly affects the others. It is therefore important for the various actors to work together.
For us at Vetcare, cooperation and partnerships have always been an integral part of our operations. For a long time, we were involved in the University of Helsinki's One Health project as a funder, and we are still involved in the project's activities and listening to new research projects. In the One Health network, for example, we have come across a concept called extracellular vesicles. They involve interesting research topics on how cells and microbes transmit information to each other. For example, we see potential here for a new type of study of disease etiology and thus for a new kind of drug model or disease prevention in the future.
One key part of One Health's thinking is the fight against antibiotic resistance. The One Health approach aims to reduce the use of antibiotics in animal and human health care so that we can prevent the spread of resistant bacteria. At Vetcare, we have worked hard not only to develop narrow-spectrum antibiotics, but also to develop disease prevention and non-antibiotic treatments. Accurate diagnostics are a key part of the fight against antibiotic resistance, which we have also invested in in our product development.
One Health thinking helps manage today's health risks. An increasing proportion of new and re-emerging diseases are zoonoses, i.e. they are transmitted from animal to human and vice versa. Multidisciplinary cooperation is needed to combat such diseases, for example through vaccines.
Animal welfare is an important theme related to One Health's thinking. This involves, for example, pain in animals and its treatment and control. As a pharmaceutical company, our goal is to extract potential new candidates for product development from research projects. The innovation we have developed for dog sedation and pain management has been possible thanks to our extensive networking and partnerships. In addition to product development, we actively share information on, for example, pain identification and treatment through our own channels. Sharing information is a key part of our operations, as we believe that animal welfare is created through human actions.
International World One Health Day is always celebrated on November 3rd. This year, the University of Helsinki will organise an event related to the theme on Monday 4.11.2024. The topic is the importance and role of researched knowledge in promoting the health of the connection. More information about the event can be found on the Helsinki One Health network's website (only in Finnish):
Author: Vesa Myllys serves as the Director of Research and Product Development at Vetcare.