Abstract
Zoonoses are fundamental determinants of community health. Preventing, identifying and managing these infections must be a central public health focus. Most current zoonoses research focuses on the interface of the pathogen and the clinically ill person, emphasizing microbial detection, mechanisms of pathogenicity and clinical intervention strategies, rather than examining the causes of emergence, persistence and spread of new zoonoses. There are gaps in the understanding of the animal determinants of emergence and the capacity to train highly qualified individuals; these are major obstacles to preventing new disease threats. The ability to predict the emergence of zoonoses and their resulting public health and societal impacts are hindered when insufficient effort is devoted to understanding zoonotic disease epidemiology, and when zoonoses are not examined in a manner that yields fundamental insight into their origin and spread.EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH SHOULD REST ON FOUR PILLARS: enhanced communications across disciplinary and agency boundaries; the assessment and development of surveillance and disease detection tools; the examination of linkages between animal health determinants of human health outcomes; and finally, cross-disciplinary training and research. A national strategy to predict, prevent and manage emerging diseases must have a prominent and explicit role for veterinary and biological researchers. An integrated health approach would provide decision makers with a firmer foundation from which to build evidence-based disease prevention and control plans that involve complex human/animal/environmental systems, and would serve as the foundation to train and support the new cadre of individuals ultimately needed to maintain and apply research capacity in this area.
Highlights
Zoonoses are fundamental determinants of community health
Zoonoses are not merely medical curiosities, but are fundamental determinants of community health. Whether they are newly emerged from animals, or have subsequently adapted to human-to-human transmission, zoonotic diseases have shaped human society
Media reports have suggested that the impact on Canadian agriculture from a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) found in Alberta is nearing multibillion dollar levels
Summary
In 2001, Murphy [4] concluded that “the research base for many newly emergent pathogens and the diseases they cause is very small and very narrow...[with] few grants awarded in these subjects”. We have spent little time studying the social and ecological factors that promote transmissions systems and allow animal pathogens to change from having limited impact on people to becoming major determinants of community and individual health. The major goals of such a group or groups should be to critically investigate the complex drivers and interactions of disease emergence through interdisciplinary research, to train a cadre of people with the necessary skill sets, and to serve as a resource to policy makers and other individuals This group should be outside the traditional bureaucracy of ministries or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, unimpeded by jurisdictional and legislative responsibilities, and within an organizational framework that facilitates creative thinking and open communication
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