One Health
One Health is the concept that connects the health of humans with the health of animals and the environment. Zoonotic diseases, or also called zoonosis, are a big concern under the One Health concept. Zoonotic diseases are diseases that are shared and can be transmitted between humans and animals (vis-a-vis), and can have serious or even fatal outcomes. Some of these diseases will be listed below and introduced later on in order to help you stay safe and educate others. There are many more topics of issue under the One Health Concept, such as antimicrobial resistance or food safety, for which BWRC will offer and recommend further training and education. The importance of recognizing the impact of animal and environmental health on our own human health, which includes even the emergence of global pandemics including COVID-19, cannot be overstated. We recommend WHO, CDC, OIE Â or the One Health Commission Websites for further information.
Mutual Benefit
To put simply: In order to have healthy humans we need a healthy environment with healthy animals. If not, unhealthy animals or unhealthy environments will cause sickness in humans. As veterinarians our profession is animal health, but it includes food safety, zoonosis prevention and disease monitoring as well. The HW Pocket Guide is intended to assist you in identification of human wildlife conflict while protecting your health. Through awareness about animal health, one health and how this impacts your health, we hope you will be safer in your approach to conflict mitigation, illegal wildlife traffic or emergency response. The BWRC Wildlife hotline 615-5159 stands by to provide advice, support and disease monitoring.
To learn more on ONE Health, visit OH Awareness Month Social Media Challenge Calendar.docx for a diverse compilation of references
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Intestinal Parasites
Almost all wildlife animals and domestic pets have some sort of intestinal parasites. Worse yet, some of these can be transmitted to us (and also vice versa). Learn more  A great example of parasites are roundworms; toxocariasis.
Rabies and Wound Infections
Rabies is a disease found in most mammals including mammals. It is 100% fatal, yet 100% preventable through immunization and preventive measures. Learn more
Scabies & Skin fungus
Scabies is actually caused by a skin mite that burrows to the upper layer of the skin. Learn more about scabies here. Â Fungi can also cause skin infections and be transmitted to us.Â
Psittacosis
Is a disease caused by a bacteria that mainly affects the respiratory systems of birds, more commonly parrots. It is less common for humans to acquire this, but may run higher chances if they work around birds, especially parrots. Learn more
Avian Influenza
Another disease that affects bird species and have low chances of it being passed on to humans. This is however a virus and transmissibility is higher among water bird species, domestic pultries and even other animal species. Learn more
Salmonellosis
- Salmonellosis is an infection that is caused by the bacterium Salmonella. Salmonella are a group of, so far 2,500 described bacteria, of which less than 100 can cause human infections. Salmonella in humans is usually contracted from eating contaminated food
Tickborne Diseases
- Vector borne diseases are diseases that are transmitted between species by a vector such as mosquito, flea, or ticks. Ticks are especially prevalent in dogs and wildlife. These effects can be life threatening for animal host if left untreated. Human infections are rarely diagnosed but can be something serious, and even fatal. Some examples are Ehrlichiosis and Anaplasmosis.
