Working Towards Animal Health : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-3: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Key Phrases: World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), epizootic diseases, One Health Unit, National Digital Livestock Mission, Animal Health Regulatory Ecosystem, Animal Pandemic Preparedness Model, Animal Health Regulatory Ecosystem, Incentives for animal vaccines and infrastructure.

Why in News?

A pressing need has arisen after COVID-19 for greater collaborations and synergies between research on human health and animal health to forge effective tools for pandemic preparedness.

Key Highlights about the livestock sector in India:

India has a livestock population of 1.6 billion, with approximately 280 million farmers relying on livestock and related industries for livelihood.
From the perspective of trade, the dairy industry in the country is valued at $160 billion, while the meat industry is valued at $50 billion.
In addition, livestock and related activities have significant overlap with wildlife and humans.
In the current atmosphere of climate change and unpredictable weather, animal husbandry assumes significance as a source of reliable income for farmers.

Do you Know?

World Organisation for Animal Health

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), formerly the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), is an inter-governmental organisation coordinating, supporting, and promoting animal disease control.
The main objective of the WOAH is to control epizootic diseases and thus prevent their spread.
Other objectives consist of transparency, scientific information, international solidarity, sanitary safety, the promotion of Veterinary Services, food safety, and animal welfare.
It is recognised as a reference organisation by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in 2018 had a total of 182 member states.
The WOAH does not depend on the UN system, its autonomy is both institutional and financial, and its activities are governed by its own constitutional texts.

What is the global trend of zoonotic diseases?

Globally, around 9,580 instances of disease outbreaks have been witnessed from 2000 to 2010, of which 60% of diseases were zoonotic in nature.
The incidences of disease outbreaks across the globe have also been increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6%.
In India, the annual outbreak of zoonotic diseases translates into an estimated annual loss of $12 billion to the economy.
Even though these diseases do not affect human health directly, they are responsible for huge consequences to farmers, exports, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth nationally.
A major loophole in the context of pandemic preparedness can be attributed to the fact that it has largely been human centric, leaving a large unaddressed gap for diseases of pandemic potential in animals.

Various Initiatives by the Government towards animal health:

Increased Investment: The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), Government of India has been working towards increased investment in preparedness to protect health and build economic resilience so that India could become a world leader in animal pandemic preparedness.
One Health Unit: DAHD has set up a dedicated ‘One Health Unit’ in collaboration with the Gates Foundation.
Animal Pandemic Preparedness Model: One of the primary focus areas of the unit has been an “animal pandemic preparedness” model by creating a mechanism for storage and seamless exchange of data and information on livestock health which will be implemented through the National Digital Livestock Mission (NDLM).
Animal Health Regulatory Ecosystem: DAHD has set up an Empowered Committee for Animal Health to streamline the animal health regulatory ecosystem in the country.
Linking of animal disease diagnostic labs: Within the framework of the NDLM, substantial progress has been made by linking all the animal disease diagnostic labs involved in sero-surveillance through a single portal, and harmonisation of SOPs used by labs.
Incentives for animal vaccines and infrastructure: The companies can now avail incentives for setting up or expansion of animal vaccines and related infrastructure under the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Fund to incentivise the growth of the animal health industry in India,

What is One Health Concept?

One Health is an approach that recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment.
One Health has become more important in recent years because many factors have changed interactions between people, animals, plants, and our environment.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) introduced the term “One World-One Health” in 2007 along with 12 recommendations (the Manhattan Principles) that focused on establishing a more holistic approach to preventing epidemic disease and maintaining ecosystem integrity.

One Health Concept in India:

The bridge between human and wildlife health is the domesticated animals, which are the carriers of a lot of diseases between human beings and wildlife, or which start from the livestock sector and gets transferred to human health.Thus, the DAHD decided to operationalise this concept where all three platforms start talking and reporting to each other with capacity building.
The initiatives under the concept include:
- Institutionalising the mechanism for the data collection on disease outbreak, prevalence, and management.
- It also entails integrating the network of laboratories with a focus on strengthening communication and lab testing capacities around zoonotic diseases,
- Developing a communication strategy across sectors with an emphasis on livestock and animal health-related issues, and integration of the data with the digital architecture of the National Digital Livestock Mission to enable the analytics needed for the development of One Health Programme.

National Livestock Mission:

It is an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, introduced in 2014-15, with the objective of sustainable development of the livestock sector.
It helps in creating rural entrepreneurship by engaging farmers in the sector.
The scheme would also provide livelihood opportunities to the unemployed youth and livestock farmers in the cattle, dairy, poultry, sheep, goat, piggery, feed, and fodder sectors.

Way Forward:

The advances in human vaccines have not been leveraged in animal vaccine development so far.
To create a robust pandemic preparedness model, it is imperative to merge the data on animal health with the available data on human health.
A successful animal pandemic preparedness model template would entail seamless coordination with critical ecosystem partners to ensure the timely and successful development of animal drugs and vaccines.
The ecosystem partners would include entities carrying out pathogen prioritisation and aiding pharma companies in vaccine research, Indian pharma companies, and global organisations like World Organisation for Animal Health, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, etc.
The pandemic preparedness initiative would thus enable the linking and comparison of real-time information regarding diseases between wildlife and human systems that would create a reliable mechanism for forecasting disease outbreaks.
This India-focused initiative will also present a good starting point to lead the global pandemic preparedness effort because this threat is faced by other countries as well, including developed economies.
The dynamic model under preparation would further result in enhanced disease surveillance so that the countries are better prepared before the next outbreak hits.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. There is pressing need for greater collaborations and synergies between research on human health and animal health to forge effective tools for pandemic preparedness. Discuss.(Discuss).