{"id":55521,"date":"2019-01-18T11:43:49","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T16:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=55521"},"modified":"2019-01-18T11:47:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T16:47:47","slug":"brock-alumnus-raising-awareness-of-one-health-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2019\/01\/brock-alumnus-raising-awareness-of-one-health-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock alumnus raising awareness of One Health concept"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everything is connected. To find sustainable health solutions for the planet, problems affecting the entire ecosystem must be addressed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was this concept, known as One Health, that prompted Dr. Ronald Mergl\u00a0(MSc &#8217;10) to enrol in\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brock\u2019s Master of Science program 11 years ago. Raising awareness of One Health and\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">zoonotic diseases have remained the focus of the Niagara Falls veterinarian ever since.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m a firm believer that the health of all humans is inextricably tied to the health of all animals and to the health of our environment,\u201d Mergl says. \u201cThe One Health concept means that people and animals will have a sustainable and healthy future, only if our environment is clean, robust and nourishing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through the study of zoonotic diseases \u2014 disorders that can be passed from\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">animals to humans \u2014 Mergl gained an enhanced understanding of the actions\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">communities need to start taking to prevent global health disasters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMany of the newly emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic,\u201d Mergl explains.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAs urban Canadians, we tend to think of veterinary medicine in the context of the health of the family pet as impacting our emotional and even physical well-being,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but globally, there are a number of factors that lead to an increased rate of transmission of diseases.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These conditions include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> people and animals living in closer proximity than ever before<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> deteriorating environmental conditions, which can accelerate the spread of a\u00a0<\/span>disease through the animal kingdom and facilitate transmission to humans<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and accelerated global travel and trade, which enables pathogens to be spread\u00a0<\/span>with astonishing speeds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mergl has dedicated seven years to international volunteer work. During this time, he was actively involved with Veterinarians Without Borders Canada, working in the African nation of Malawi to prevent rabies transmission. He is also past Chair of the Rotary Human Rabies Prevention Project in Uganda, a community-based initiative that took place over five years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTransmission of avian influenza, rabies, salmonella, West Nile virus, Lyme disease\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and SARS are only a few examples of the diseases transmitted from animals harbouring the disease to people,\u201d Mergl says. \u201cIn developed countries, it has become\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">common knowledge that transmission is influenced by the health of the environment\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in which animals live, yet we are too often confronted with the lack of political will to sufficiently address our global environment and climate change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to address poverty,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hunger, clean water, education, health, the environment, gender equality, peace, and stable economics, Mergl points out that \u201cantibiotic resistance has become one\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the frontline health problems we have today in both human and animal health.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOveruse of antibiotics in food-producing animals has contributed to this problem,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mergl explains. \u201cRaising animals in appropriate living conditions, with reduced\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">antibiotic use and alternative therapies, is really the best way to address the control\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of pathogens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without a healthy global environment, Mergl believes resilience cannot be built to\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">address adverse health events.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNever before has a generation of people possessed the technology and knowledge\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to truly fix the environmental health crisis that faces us,\u201d he says. \u201cOnly through\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">collaboration of health professionals of all disciplines and environmental scientists, as\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">well as the governing bodies of all countries, can we gain the knowledge and develop\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">actions to prevent global health disasters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mergl is calling on all citizens to become more educated and involved. \u201cBy respecting the culture and basic rights of all people, paying attention to domestic and wild animal welfare and protecting our environment, we can improve the health of all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everything is connected. To find sustainable health solutions for the planet, problems affecting the entire ecosystem must be addressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":55522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,36,55,1,4],"tags":[5521,1677,7442],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55525,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55521\/revisions\/55525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}