Plant-made vaccines and reagents for the One Health initiative

Rybicki, Edward Peter

The One Health initiative, formerly known as One Medicine, is "…dedicated to improving the lives of all species -human and animal -through the integration of human medicine, veterinary medicine and environmental science" (http://www.onehealthini tiative.com/mission.php). It is premised on the principle that the health of the Earth's people is connected to the health of its animals and of the environment, and encourages collaboration to achieve the best health for all of these. The initiative in its modern form dates from 2007, when a formal bond was established between the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), and when an International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza in New Delhi urged governments to build One Health linkages for pandemic preparedness and human health security. Adoption of the principles by the European Union and the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and support from international bodies such as the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health, mean that while it is still a virtual initiative that does not provide funding, its influence on national and international health policies is significant. 1 The importance of the approach can be seen when one realizes that 6 out of every 10 infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, or spread from animals (https://www.cdc.gov/one health/), and 7 out of 10 of emerging or re-emerging infections are vector-borne or zoonotic (http://www.onehealthinitiative. com/). There is particular interest in developing low-cost reagents for point-of-care diagnostics that could also be used as vaccines for animals and possibly also for humans, as these diseases mainly affect people and animals in developing countries, meaning that resources to study them are often lacking.