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(January 05, 2021) Zoonotic diseases occur when harmful germs, like viruses and bacteria, are spread from animals to people, causing illness that can range from mild to deadly. Commercial wildlife markets, at which wildlife are often sold freshly slaughtered, present a major risk for the development and spread of zoonotic diseases. Animal consumption-based food systems have been implicated in the emergence of zoonoses (including HIV, SARS, Ebola virus disease, avian influenza), and mounting evidence indicates subs...

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(January 05, 2021) If we continue the unabated incursion of humans on natural ecosystems, emerging infectious disease experts agree that it is a matter of when, not if, the next pandemic arises. What they fear most is that the next pathogen that spills over from wildlife to humans will cause a disease even more fatal, but with the same ease of asymptomatic human-to-human transmission as SARS-CoV-2. To make the drastic changes needed to avert the next pandemic, a multi-disciplinary One Health approach is essential ...

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(December 15, 2020) WCS' Sue Lieberman and Chris Walzer write for Undark: "Planetary neglect and mismanagement helped pave the way for the Covid-19 pandemic. Our disruption of natural ecosystems has led to escalating health crises, including an increase in zoonotic diseases that arise when pathogens pass between animals and humans. There is no excuse for humanity to have allowed this to happen, and even less excuse for us to allow it to happen again. To prevent the next pandemic, and to address today’s m...

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(November 18, 2020) A One Health approach is a collaborative, dynamic, and transdisciplinary approach—working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes for all. Today, broad consensus exists that health encompasses more than parasites and pathogens; it must incorporate socio-economic, political, evolutionary, and environmental factors while also considering individual attributes and behaviors. On November 17, WCS issued a report on One Health ...

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(November 13, 2020) On November 17-18 WCS and the German Federal Foreign Office will jointly host a virtual meeting on how to operationalize One Health across the globe. COVID-19 has shown us the exorbitant cost of inaction.  Global leaders in wildlife and human health are taking further active steps to ensure that governments, academia, and civil society break down barriers and form a united effort to prevent the emergence or resurgence of diseases, like COVID-19, that threaten people, wildlife, and...

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