One Health - One Welfare

The rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, reminds us how interconnected animal welfare, human welfare and the environment are!

The One Welfare Framework1 coined by Rebeca García Pinillos, promotes the link between animal welfare, human wellbeing, and the physical and social environment2. It complements the One Health Approach which addresses the interconnectedness between human, environmental, and animal health3?focusing mostly on health aspects not taking into account welfare considerations?.?However, the world faces unprecedented challenges directly linked to animal welfare: food safety, climate change, zoonoses and biodiversity loss.

The global trade in wild animals and the expansion of livestock production into wild habitats bring us in closer contact to wild animals and their pathogens than ever before. These then present an increased risk of new pandemics developing, with the potential of severely impacting human health and wellbeing (high death tolls, economic loss, social isolation and mental health issues, health complications, increased risk of domestic violence, less exercise opportunities due to confinement?).

We can lower the risk of future pandemic emergence if we reduce or eliminate our unsustainable consumption of animal-based commodities originating from emerging disease hotspots. These include wildlife and wildlife-derived products and dogs and cats used for their meat?.?A shift towards more sustainable models of consumption would protect our ecosystems.

Reducing our excessive consumption of animal products would save our planet from the worst effects of factory farming.

The effects of factory farming include: greenhouse gases, pollution and shrinking wildlife and biodiversity habitats?.?It would also protect the health and welfare of millions of farm animals by eliminating cruel practices. When animals suffer and endure cruelty, their immune systems are weakened, creating the perfect conditions for diseases to spread between animals. This is especially the case in factory farming systems on the one hand, where animals lack genetic diversity, healthy, species-appropriate living conditions, or space?,?and in unnatural keeping conditions on the other, like (live animal) markets where a range of species are crammed together?.?Such factors dramatically increase the risk of the spread of diseases. And when we add humans to the mix, this can?have deadly consequences as some pathogens develop the ability to jump into other species – just like we are seeing with COVID-19.?

By recognising that human and animal welfare are intrinsically connected and embracing the One Welfare Framework across a wide range of policies, we can help prevent the next pandemic and tackle the most pressing global problems.

In October of this year, we published a Future Study on Pandemic Prevention which produced worrying results. The study highlighted findings from 29 renowned experts from various fields, which sounded the alarm on underestimating the influence of animal welfare on causing pandemics such as COVID-19 – even with the known dramatic consequences they have on health, society, and the economy.?

Sources:

1) One Welfare:?About One Welfare - One Welfare (onewelfareworld.org)?(visited 31st?of March 2021).

2) One Welfare:?About One Welfare - One Welfare (onewelfareworld.org)?(visited 31st?of March 2021).

3) One Health:?OneHealth: OIE - World Organisation for Animal Health?(visited 31st?of March 2021).

4) Pinillos, R. G., Appleby, M., Manteca, X., Scott-Park, F., Smith, C., Velarde, A. (2016): One Welfare – a platform for improving human and animal welfare, Veterinary Record, URL:?vetrec-2016-october-179-16-412-inline-supplementary-material-1.pdf (onewelfareworld.org)?(visited 31st?of March).

5) Pinillos, R. G. (2021): One welfare impacts of COVID-19 – A summary of key highlights within the one welfare framework, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 236,?https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105262.

6) Daszak, P., Amuasi, J., das Neves, C. G., Hayman, D., Kuiken, T., Roche, B., Zambrana-Torrelio, C., Buss, P., Dundarova, H., Feferholtz, Y., F?ldvári, G., Igbinosa, E., Junglen, S., Liu, Q., Suzan, G., Uhart, M., Wannous, C., Woolaston, K., Mosig Reidl, P., O’Brien, K., Pascual, U., Stoett, P., Li, H., Ngo, H. T. (2020): Workshop Report on Biodiversity and Pandemics of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany, DOI:10.5281/zenodo.4147317, URL:?https://ipbes.net/sites/default/files/2020-12/IPBES%20Workshop%20on%20Biodiversity%20and%20Pandemics%20Report_0.pdf?(visited 31st?of March 2021).

7) Smith, P., Nkem, J., Calvin, K., Campbell, D., Cherubini, F., Grassi, G., Korotkov, V., Hoang, A.L., Lwasa, S., McElwee, P., Nkonya, E., Saigusa, N., Soussana, J.-F., Taboada, M.A. (2019): Interlinkages Between Desertification, Land Degradation, Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes: Synergies, Trade-offs and Integrated Response Options. In: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia, V. Masson-Delmotte, H.- O. Portner, D. C. Roberts, P. Zhai, R. Slade, S. Connors, R. van Diemen, M. Ferrat, E. Haughey, S. Luz, S.?Neogi, M. Pathak, J. Petzold, J. Portugal Pereira, P. Vyas, E. Huntley, K. Kissick, M. Belkacemi, J. Malley, (eds.)], In press,?https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-6/?(visited 31st?of March 2021).

8) Espinosa, R., Tago, D., Treich, N. (2020): Infectious Diseases and Meat Production. Environmental and Resource Economics, 76, 1019–1044,?https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-020-00484-3.

9) Daszak, P., Amuasi, J., das Neves, C. G., Hayman, D., Kuiken, T., Roche, B., Zambrana-Torrelio, C., Buss, P., Dundarova, H., Feferholtz, Y., F?ldvári, G., Igbinosa, E., Junglen, S., Liu, Q., Suzan, G., Uhart, M., Wannous, C., Woolaston, K., Mosig Reidl, P., O’Brien, K., Pascual, U., Stoett, P., Li, H., Ngo, H. T. (2020): Workshop Report on Biodiversity and Pandemics of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany, DOI:10.5281/zenodo.4147317, URL:?https://ipbes.net/sites/default/files/2020-12/IPBES%20Workshop%20on%20Biodiversity%20and%20Pandemics%20Report_0.pdf?(visited 31st?of March 2021).?