About the One Health SIG:

About 75% of emerging infectious diseases affecting humans have their origins in animals. These zoonotic diseases - often transmitted through vectors, food, close contact with animals - can have significant negative effects on public health, the economy and the natural environment - and potentially on social stability and security (e.g. pandemics, bioterrorism).

The increased threat to human, animal and environmental health from both known and previously unknown emerging pathogens - viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms - is driven by a range of factors, including intensification of farming systems, industrialisation of protein production, changes in land use, climate change, population growth, urbanisation, trade (particularly in wildlife), travel and tourism, and human encroachment into wildlife ecosystems. In Australia, emerging infectious diseases include spillover of Hendra virus from bats to horses and humans, Q fever, flaviviruses (e.g. Murray Valley encephalitis, Kunjin virus) that all involve complex interactions between people, domestic animals and the natural environment. There is also increasing incidence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria - such as campylobacter, salmonella and E. coli - that can spread to humans through the food chain.

Addressing the complex challenges posed by such emerging infectious diseases - particular those that are zoonoses - requires a multidisciplinary One Health approach that encompasses expertise and analysis from a wide range of disciplines.