Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2021

Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V54

Bird's-eye view of the One Health concept

Höfundar / Authors: Teresa Dembinska

Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1. Hólar University, 2. Nord University

Kynnir / Presenter: Teresa Dembinska

One Health is a concept that recognizes the indivisible connection between the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems. It aims to tackle the challenge of future pandemics with multi-disciplinary collaboration, international coordination, and public communication. The concept initially emerged from various zoonoses studies. In 2004, the 12 Manhattan Principles were published, one of which emphasized the importance of wildlife health monitoring as a tool in disease prevention and control. Since the SARS outbreak in 2003, we have seen many cases of the emergence of pathogens from wildlife that can happen at any time or place. This phenomena is linked to increased human-livestock-wildlife-ecosystem interactions, intensification of food production and international trade and travel. Wild birds are known to be natural reservoirs for viruses and their seasonal migrations may play a role in broad-scale virus circulation. There is evidence of exposure to avian influenza virus (AIV) in Icelandic birds, so Iceland is an important location for AIV recombination and potential emergence of new viral strains. Furthermore, in November 2020 a new highly pathogenic strain of AIV was reported in Europe, to which birds wintering in Iceland might have been exposed. Yet, very little is known about viruses circulating in northern populations of seabirds, which is especially important from a climate change perspective. Thus, it is crucial to evaluate virus prevalence in seabirds in Iceland.