The AVMA, or American Veterinary Medicine Association, is supporting a bipartisan effort to introduce a bill to combat zoonotic diseases. The Advancing Emergency Preparedness Through One Health Act (One Health Act for short) is designed to focus on the prevention of zoonotic diseases and to coordinate efforts between the departments that deal with them.
What Is a Zoonotic Disease?
A zoonotic disease is any disease that is shared between humans and animals. It can be a disease that spreads from animals to humans or vice versa. Some commonly known zoonotic diseases are:
- Lyme disease
- Rabies
- Swine flu
- Bubonic plague
What Zoonotic Diseases Are Most Common in the USA?
Not all of the diseases listed above are currently a major risk to humans. However, up to 60% of infectious diseases are actually zoonotic in nature. The CDC has compiled a list of the eight zoonotic diseases that are of greatest risk to humans in the United States:
- Salmonellosis
- Lyme disease
- Rabies
- Zoonotic influenza
- Plague
- Emerging coronaviruses
- West Nile virus
- Brucellosis
What Would the One Health Bill Do?
The One Health bill has the following three goals:
- Workforce development pertaining to the prevention of and response to zoonotic disease outbreaks in both humans and animals
- Increased coordination between the different federal agencies that study the environment and the health of animals and humans
- Improved scientific understanding of the health connections between the environment, animals, and humans
The bill aims to ensure that the relevant federal agencies are better equipped to handle diseases. With more resources, the federal agencies involved with handling zoonotic diseases can better prevent the spread of diseases.
Who Introduced the Bill to Congress?
The One Health bill was reintroduced to both the Senate and the House of Representatives by a bipartisan team. In the House of Representatives, the bill was reintroduced by Republican Representative Dusty Johnson of South Dakota and Representative Kurt Schrader, a Democratic representative from Oregon, who is also a veterinarian. In the Senate, the bill was reintroduced by Senator Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, and Senator Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana.
