One Health

 The concept of One Health has emerged into the mainstream in recent years and will be familiar to most veterinary and human medicine practitioners. How does animal healthcare fit into the health of humans and the environment, and what impact can veterinary professionals make? BSAVA Scientific Editor, Lizzie Croose, focuses on the origins of One health, the veterinary profession’s role in One Health and how One Health can be adopted in everyday practice.

Leadership perspective: what is needed right now and how to change minds? This non-hysterical look at the big picture provides information regarding the crisis we are facing, and details the leadership skills for you to personally take it forward into practice and your lives to feel like you’re making a difference. The time is past where we can all sit back hoping against hope that someone else will lead us out of this situation. There are things that every individual can do, but more power to effect change comes with better strategy – this lecture focuses on the practical delivery of change into existing structures.

What is happening in the veterinary sector: a high level perspective: Medical journal The Lancet has called climate change “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century”, but also the greatest public health opportunity. The veterinary sector has a moral obligation to mitigate against and adapt to the triple threats of global heating, resource scarcity and biodiversity loss. The transformative change required for this endeavour has been forced by the global pandemic; the question is how we choose to emerge from one crisis, in order to deal with the next? Small animal veterinary practice has a unique set of environmental impacts, not least the greenhouse gas effects caused by release of volatile anaesthetic agents, but also single use plastic consumption, hazardous waste production, and resource use. Some opportunities are clear; others present a wicked problem with interdependent impacts, inadvertent consequences of changes, and embedded behaviours all contributing to the tangled puzzle. We will need to show the best of what we can do; work collaboratively, think laterally, dissect the detail whilst seeing the bigger picture, and showing leadership in the workplace and in our communities. This lecture will highlight the excellent environmental sustainability work that is underway in the small animal sector, and the opportunities for growth and participation.

 Tim Nuttall, Senior Lecturer in Dermatology at The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, summarizes the EMA categorization of antibiotics for use in animals for prudent and responsible use.

  For World Antibiotic Awareness Week this month (18–24 November) Fergus Allerton a European and RCVS Veterinary Specialist in Small Animal Internal Medicine provides an update of antibiotic stewardship guidelines.

  British science is facing arguably its biggest ever peacetime challenge – to develop reliable diagnostic tests and an effective vaccination for the human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative organism of COVID-19. If there is one researcher who truly understands how difficult the task will be, and what is needed to succeed, he is Joe Brownlie. The former head of pathology at the Royal Veterinary College led the team which solved the mystery of a coronavirus strain causing respiratory disease in dogs. He told John Bonner what lessons that project can teach us in dealing with the current pandemic.

Lucas Hixson is a US scientist working to protect the health of both the human and canine population around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. He told John Bonner why the Ukrainian authorities support a One Health approach to dealing with the deadly legacy of Europe’s worst ever industrial accident.

Sylvia Jeffers doesn’t own a pet yet has a greater understanding than many dog lovers of their pets’ welfare needs.

PetSavers has funded research into the affect of passive smoking on pet health.