The benefits of ‘One Health’ for pastoralists in Africa
‘One health’ is particularly suited to serve mobile pastoralists. Dinka pastoralists in Sudan inspired Calvin Schwabe to coin the term ‘one medicine’, indicating that there is no difference in paradigm between human and veterinary medicine. Our contemporary definition of ‘one health’ is any added va...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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AOSIS
2014-04-01
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| Series: | Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ojvr.org/index.php/ojvr/article/view/726 |
| _version_ | 1818486977632141312 |
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| author | Helena Greter Vreni Jean-Richard Lisa Crump Mahamat Béchir Idriss O. Alfaroukh Esther Schelling Bassirou Bonfoh Jakob Zinsstag |
| author_facet | Helena Greter Vreni Jean-Richard Lisa Crump Mahamat Béchir Idriss O. Alfaroukh Esther Schelling Bassirou Bonfoh Jakob Zinsstag |
| author_sort | Helena Greter |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ‘One health’ is particularly suited to serve mobile pastoralists. Dinka pastoralists in Sudan inspired Calvin Schwabe to coin the term ‘one medicine’, indicating that there is no difference in paradigm between human and veterinary medicine. Our contemporary definition of ‘one health’ is any added value in terms of improved health of humans and animals or financial savings or environmental services resulting from a closer cooperation of human and animal health sectors. Here we present a summary of ‘one health’ studies with mobile pastoralists in Africa which were done in research partnership, demonstrating such an added value. Initial joint human and animal health studies revealed higher livestock vaccination coverage than in the pastoralist community, leading to joint animal and human vaccination intervention studies which demonstrated a better access to primary health care services for pastoralists in Chad. Further simultaneous animal and human serological studies showed that camel breeding was associated with human Q-fever seropositivity. In Borana communities in Ethiopia, human cases of Mycobacterium bovis infection could be related to strains isolated from cattle. A challenge remained with regard to how to assess vaccination coverage in mobile populations. With the advent of mobile phones, health and demographic surveillance could be established for mobile pastoralists and their animals. This presents vast possibilities for surveillance and control of human and animal diseases. Pastoralists prefer a ‘one health’ approach and therefore contribute toward the validation of this concept by showing real added value of the cooperation between human and animal health services. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T16:30:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c3249acc15034387a0b12c31464b9b39 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0030-2465 2219-0635 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T16:30:51Z |
| publishDate | 2014-04-01 |
| publisher | AOSIS |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-c3249acc15034387a0b12c31464b9b392022-12-22T01:41:32ZengAOSISOnderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research0030-24652219-06352014-04-01812e1e310.4102/ojvr.v81i2.726435The benefits of ‘One Health’ for pastoralists in AfricaHelena Greter0Vreni Jean-Richard1Lisa Crump2Mahamat Béchir3Idriss O. Alfaroukh4Esther Schelling5Bassirou Bonfoh6Jakob Zinsstag7Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland and University of Basel, SwitzerlandSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland and University of Basel, SwitzerlandSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland and University of Basel, SwitzerlandCentre de Support en Santé InternationaleInstitut de Recherche en Elevage pour le DéveloppementSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland and University of Basel, SwitzerlandCentre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, Côte d’IvoireSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland and University of Basel, Switzerland‘One health’ is particularly suited to serve mobile pastoralists. Dinka pastoralists in Sudan inspired Calvin Schwabe to coin the term ‘one medicine’, indicating that there is no difference in paradigm between human and veterinary medicine. Our contemporary definition of ‘one health’ is any added value in terms of improved health of humans and animals or financial savings or environmental services resulting from a closer cooperation of human and animal health sectors. Here we present a summary of ‘one health’ studies with mobile pastoralists in Africa which were done in research partnership, demonstrating such an added value. Initial joint human and animal health studies revealed higher livestock vaccination coverage than in the pastoralist community, leading to joint animal and human vaccination intervention studies which demonstrated a better access to primary health care services for pastoralists in Chad. Further simultaneous animal and human serological studies showed that camel breeding was associated with human Q-fever seropositivity. In Borana communities in Ethiopia, human cases of Mycobacterium bovis infection could be related to strains isolated from cattle. A challenge remained with regard to how to assess vaccination coverage in mobile populations. With the advent of mobile phones, health and demographic surveillance could be established for mobile pastoralists and their animals. This presents vast possibilities for surveillance and control of human and animal diseases. Pastoralists prefer a ‘one health’ approach and therefore contribute toward the validation of this concept by showing real added value of the cooperation between human and animal health services.https://ojvr.org/index.php/ojvr/article/view/726One HealthHealth serviceszoonosesmobile pastoralists |
| spellingShingle | Helena Greter Vreni Jean-Richard Lisa Crump Mahamat Béchir Idriss O. Alfaroukh Esther Schelling Bassirou Bonfoh Jakob Zinsstag The benefits of ‘One Health’ for pastoralists in Africa Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research One Health Health services zoonoses mobile pastoralists |
| title | The benefits of ‘One Health’ for pastoralists in Africa |
| title_full | The benefits of ‘One Health’ for pastoralists in Africa |
| title_fullStr | The benefits of ‘One Health’ for pastoralists in Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | The benefits of ‘One Health’ for pastoralists in Africa |
| title_short | The benefits of ‘One Health’ for pastoralists in Africa |
| title_sort | benefits of one health for pastoralists in africa |
| topic | One Health Health services zoonoses mobile pastoralists |
| url | https://ojvr.org/index.php/ojvr/article/view/726 |
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