Contribution of veterinary microbiology to the ‘One Health’ idea

In recent years, there have been notable increas in the occurrence of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Most have resulted from the crossing of species barriers from animals to humans, especially from wildlife reservoirs. These threats draw attention to the changing patterns of diseases on a global scale and raise the need for a new worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment. The most commonly used term for this concept is ‘One Health’. Its origin lies in pre-modern medicine and refers to the idea of One Medicine which means that there is no difference between humans and animals when it comes to the approach to health and disease. The creation of veterinary schools across Europe in the late 18^th and 19^th centuries is portrayed as a break with the past, in which a new enlightened approach to animal healing superseded that of ignorance and cruelty. At the end of the 19^th century, discovery upon discovery was rapidly made in the domain of bacteriology and immunology. Animal diseases were first studied, and veterinary medicine and veterinary bacteriology was closely linked with these findings. Throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries, ‘One Health’ concept broke new ground in its concern with the environmental and wildlife aspects of health. This change in thought pattern has been fueled by a number of high-profile international infectious disease events over the past decades. To continue the implementation of the ‘One Health’ idea, the next generation of infectious disease specialists needs to be acquainted not only with modern diagnostic technics, but also equipped to understand disease pathogenesis and the basic principles underlying disease control.

1. Introduction. 2. One medicine, from ancient times until the XVIII century. 3. Divergence of veterinary medicine. 4. Microbiology in veterinary medicine. 5. ‘One Health’ in XX-century medicine. 6. Concluding remarks