Conservation medicine and One Health in zoos: Scope,obstacles, and unrecognized potential

Zoo veterinarians and allied professionals have been contributing to conservation medicine (CM) and One Health (OH) activities for more than two decades. Although the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) considers conservation a key part of its mission, little published material exists about the extent of AZA work in CM/OH or the challenges and opportunities associated with these endeavors. To better understand the current scope of CM/OH in zoos, we surveyed 53 AZA‐accredited institutions from April through October of 2016. We obtained information on CM/OH infrastructure, support for expansion in this area, and strategies to overcome perceived obstacles hindering CM/OH from becoming a core AZA activity. Survey results revealed that while most zoos favor greater investment in CM/OH programs, awareness, and understanding of CM/OH across the broader zoo community and public is lacking. The majority of respondents stated that overcoming this challenge is paramount to attaining support for CM/OH initiatives. In spite of these obstacles, survey respondents highlighted many positive developments in CM/OH. We found that 84% of zoos surveyed are actively engaged in CM/OH activities, and 12% house formal CM/OH programs. Another 8% of respondents said their institutions were developing CM/OH programs. Perhaps most noteworthy, we found that zoo size did not have a significant bearing on the financial amount allocated toward an institution's CM/OH activities. This suggests that all zoos, regardless of size, can make meaningful contributions to the growing movement of CM/OH and help redefine the role of zoos within this movement.     

Health,Welfare Reform,and Narratives of Uncertainty Among Cambodian Refugees

Massive disruptions to a way of life, such as thosebrought on by widespread violence, terror, andgenocide, disorder the body as well as the socialorder. When they flee their homelands, refugees bringtheir experiences of violence and terror with them. Drawing on an ethnographic study of 40 Cambodianrefugees between the ages of 50 and 79 who sufferedfrom one or more chronic illnesses, we explore howrefugees who live with chronic illnesses and aredependent on government support were affected by thethreat of welfare reform. When welfare reformthreatened to cut Cambodian refugees' income, it poseda new crisis for those who were chronically in limboand placed further constraints on their lives. Through their narratives, Cambodian refugees enactedtheir bodily distress and resisted the threat ofwelfare reform. The story of threatened welfarereform in the U.S. and its possible consequences forrefugees is a story of quixotic U.S. politics,policies and antidotes for refugeeism gone awry.     

Corporate Philanthropy,Political Influence,and Health Policy

Background

The Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) provides a basis for nation states to limit the political effects of tobacco industry philanthropy, yet progress in this area is limited. This paper aims to integrate the findings of previous studies on tobacco industry philanthropy with a new analysis of British American Tobacco''s (BAT) record of charitable giving to develop a general model of corporate political philanthropy that can be used to facilitate implementation of the FCTC.

Method

Analysis of previously confidential industry documents, BAT social and stakeholder dialogue reports, and existing tobacco industry document studies on philanthropy.

Results

The analysis identified six broad ways in which tobacco companies have used philanthropy politically: developing constituencies to build support for policy positions and generate third party advocacy; weakening opposing political constituencies; facilitating access and building relationships with policymakers; creating direct leverage with policymakers by providing financial subsidies to specific projects; enhancing the donor''s status as a source of credible information; and shaping the tobacco control agenda by shifting thinking on the importance of regulating the market environment for tobacco and the relative risks of smoking for population health. Contemporary BAT social and stakeholder reports contain numerous examples of charitable donations that are likely to be designed to shape the tobacco control agenda, secure access and build constituencies.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Tobacco companies'' political use of charitable donations underlines the need for tobacco industry philanthropy to be restricted via full implementation of Articles 5.3 and 13 of the FCTC. The model of tobacco industry philanthropy developed in this study can be used by public health advocates to press for implementation of the FCTC and provides a basis for analysing the political effects of charitable giving in other industry sectors which have an impact on public health such as alcohol and food.     

American Indian Health: Innovations in Health Care, Promotion, and Policy

American Indian Health: Innovations in Health Care, Promotion, and Policy. Everett R. Rhoades. M.D., ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. xxiii. 459 pp.     

耐药微生物和抗生素耐药基因与全健康

因人类的各种活动,耐药微生物和抗生素耐药基因在“人-动物-环境”界面发生跨物种和跨生境的传播。将人类、动物和环境视作有机整体的“全健康”（One Health）理念有望成为解决这种传播的有效策略。抗生素及其代谢活性产物在环境中富集,再经动物及动物制品传播到人,产生耐药微生物并造成耐药基因的传播。本文综述了人-动物-环境界面耐药菌和抗生素耐药基因传播的流动与循环,总结了我国和其他国家应对抗生素耐药性问题的政策,倡导更多的国家和地区将“全健康”理念和方法用于控制抗生素耐药性传播;通过医疗卫生部门、食品药品监督管理部门、农林渔牧部门与教育、财政等多部门合作来应对抗生素耐药性的全球挑战。     

A veterinary perspective on One Health in the Arctic

Exposure to long-range transported industrial chemicals, climate change and diseases is posing a risk to the overall health and populations of Arctic wildlife. Since local communities are relying on the same marine food web as marine mammals in the Arctic, it requires a One Health approach to understand the holistic ecosystem health including that of humans. Here we collect and identify gaps in the current knowledge of health in the Arctic and present the veterinary perspective of One Health and ecosystem dynamics. The review shows that exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is having multiple organ-system effects across taxa, including impacts on neuroendocrine disruption, immune suppression and decreased bone density among others. Furthermore, the warming Arctic climate is suspected to influence abiotic and biotic long-range transport and exposure pathways of contaminants to the Arctic resulting in increases in POP exposure of both wildlife and human populations. Exposure to vector-borne diseases and zoonoses may increase as well through range expansion and introduction of invasive species. It will be important in the future to investigate the effects of these multiple stressors on wildlife and local people to better predict the individual-level health risks. It is within this framework that One Health approaches offer promising opportunities to survey and pinpoint environmental changes that have effects on wildlife and human health.     

在医疗保健领域开发和使用生物标记物的政策性问题

描述了发展中的生物标记物所处的科学、产业、监管和医疗保健管理系统背景,指出了可能阻碍生物标记物研究、发现、发展、商业化及最终临床应用的一些障碍,聚焦了医疗保健中基于生物标记物的诊断方法和医学检验的应用,探索了生物标记物在改良药物开发中的应用。     

Direct Blood Dry LAMP: A Rapid,Stable, and Easy Diagnostic Tool for Human African Trypanosomiasis

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is a rapid and sensitive tool used for the diagnosis of a variety of infectious diseases. One of the advantages of this method over the polymerase chain reaction is that DNA amplification occurs at a constant temperature, usually between 60–65°C; therefore, expensive devices are unnecessary for this step. However, LAMP still requires complicated sample preparation steps and a well-equipped laboratory to produce reliable and reproducible results, which limits its use in resource-poor laboratories in most developing countries. In this study, we made several substantial modifications to the technique to carry out on-site diagnosis of Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) in remote areas using LAMP. The first essential improvement was that LAMP reagents were dried and stabilized in a single tube by incorporating trehalose as a cryoprotectant to prolong shelf life at ambient temperature. The second technical improvement was achieved by simplifying the sample preparation step so that DNA or RNA could be amplified directly from detergent-lysed blood samples. With these modifications, diagnosis of HAT in local clinics or villages in endemic areas becomes a reality, which could greatly impact on the application of diagnosis not only for HAT but also for other tropical diseases.