Advances in Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Public Health by Gianfranco Donelli

Author:Gianfranco Donelli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Keywords

CooperationFood safetyFood securityPublic HealthVeterinary servicesZoonosis

1 Introduction

Following the studies carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), which indicate that in 2050 the population growth on Earth will exceed 9 billion people, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations have estimated that to meet the needs regarding availability of food, the agricultural production must be more than doubled, taking also into account economic development, with special reference to some Member States (UN 2015).

The necessary increase in food production, will have a sustainable impact on environment and on the availability of natural resources. A new approach regarding the multidisciplinary collaboration between the different actors and the fallout of the results on world population is required. Furthermore, as the population density is growing, it is important to take into account the environmental impact of migration, urbanization, pollution, limited availability of natural resources, climate change and their consequences, including health problems, such as the events related to “emerging/re-emerging” diseases, including zoonoses, food borne diseases and food safety and security. In recent years, with regard to those arguments, reference is made to the slogan “One World, One Health, One Medicine”, which today is evolving to “One Medicine, One Science” (Travis et al. 2014), and, more important, the concept of “One Health”(Sikkema and Koopmans 2016) is accompanied by the terms “Eco health” and “Ecosystem health” (Zinsstag 2013; Zinsstag et al. 2015; One Health Eco Health Conference 2016).

In Italy, Veterinary Public Health (VPH), related to International Cooperation and contribution to the countries’ economy, is an aspect that Veterinary Medicine has taken into consideration since its beginning; the curricula of Veterinary Schools is based on that assumption. The concept of VPH has evolved over time, and today WHO defines it as “the sum of the contributions to physical, mental and social development of people through the knowledge and application of veterinary science”(WHO 1999).

In Italy, in 1997, Marabelli and Mantovani have defined VPH as the sum of “actions that the consumers and public administration expect from Veterinary Medicine (especially from the Veterinary State Services) for health protection, economy, environment and interrelation with animals” (Baldelli 2012).

This means that the Italian concept of VPH embraces all veterinary activities of public relevance and all the activities of Public Veterinary Services. To confirm this, it is worth considering that Veterinary Services are part of Public Health Administration, dedicated to the protection of human and animal health. In European Union, Austria is the only Member State, besides Italy, where Veterinary Services are historically part of Ministry of Health. In the other Member States, they are part of the Agriculture administration, focusing mostly on economic aspects of farms animal production.

Main purpose of VPH is Prevention and veterinary Public Health activities are meant to safeguard and promote positive man-animal-environmental relationship. The main focus relates to security and safety of food derived from animals, but research, comparative pathology, animal assisted therapy are also relevant issues dealt by the veterinary service organization. Veterinary services have to deal also with the negative aspects that might ensue, from the sanitary point of view from the control of zoonotic agents to pest control (Donelli et al.

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