Three experts warn of risk of bird flu pandemic and need for ‘One Health’ strategy

Veterinarian Elisa Pérez-Ramírez, pharmacist Gorka Orive and microbiologist Ignacio López-Goñi present their book at the headquarters of the School of Veterinary Medicine in Madrid global health.

Ignacio López-Goñi, Felipe Vilas, Gorka Orive, Elisa Pérez-Ramírez, Graziella Almendral and Víctor Algra at the book launch.

Veterinarian Elisa Pérez-Ramírez, pharmacist Gorka Orive and microbiologist Ignacio López-Goñi presented the book at the headquarters of the School of Veterinary Medicine (Colvema) in Madrid. global healththey combined their own experience and scientific knowledge to propose this concept a healthy On a pedagogical level, this makes this book essential reading for the current state of health in a globalized world.

In this book published by Penguin Random House, these three leading experts from different health disciplines explain how everything is interconnected – human, animal and environmental health – and how to successfully tackle the huge challenges we face, such as future pandemics diseases, antibiotic resistance, zoonosis, new viruses, etc., applying global health strategies (a healthy) is urgent and necessary.

The book was published by the three authors, accompanied by Colvema President Felipe Vilas and health professional journalist Graziella Almendral.

Also present were researcher Margarita del Val and renowned biotechnologist Lluis Montoliu, as well as veterinarian and popularizer Víctor Algra, who has become a media figure providing animal health advice on television and social networks.

The authors highlight the current status of different zoonotic diseases that threaten human health, such as cases of avian influenza, which have spread to several species besides birds such as ferrets or cats and pose a real risk of becoming a pandemic. They provided relevant data, such as an outbreak of avian influenza three months ago, 115,000 animals in Finnish fur farms having been culled, and an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus found in domestic cats in Poland.

All of this means that there is a “real” risk of a pandemic if the necessary precautions are not taken. As López-Goñi points out, “The more a virus that affects different species spreads, the greater the risk that it will mutate and that at some point it may spread on a large scale, as it did with SARS-CoV-2.”

To this end, they stressed the need for urgent and effective implementation of a strategy a healthy Because, as CISA virology expert Elisa Pérez-Ramírez points out, “To achieve change, we have to collaborate between different specialties.”

In an interesting discussion following the presentation, strategies needed to prevent a possible avian influenza pandemic were discussed, such as enhanced biosecurity on poultry and fur farms, enhanced epidemiological surveillance of wild birds, and increased research on vaccines investment.

In the face of this and other diverse global health threats today, the authors point out that to effectively apply a healthymore training, dissemination, research and government support are necessary.