Ann Ist Super Sanità 2006 | Vol. 42, No. 4: 397-400 397

Multidisciplinary collaboration in veterinary exper i ence

Luca Busani(a), Alfredo Caprioli(a), Agostino Macrì(a,b), Adriano Mantovani(c), Gaia Scavia(a) and Aristarco Seimenis(c)

(a) cl i n c a l

Dipartimento di Sanità Alimentare ed Animale, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy (b) WHO/FAO Collaborating Centre for Veterinary Public Health, to

Dipartimento di Sanità Alimentare e Animale, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy (c)WHO Mediterranean Zoonoses Control Centre, Athens, Greece test i ng

Summary. Multidisciplinary collaboration has been recognised necessary for centuries and has a long a n i m l

tradition. It is supported by solid bases, and is required to control a number of risk factors. Its practice encounters difficulties in various critical points. At present, the models of collaboration provided by the

activities of the WHO/Mediterranean Zoonoses Control Centre and by the Med-Vet-Net network of the from

European Community represent relevant examples. Key words: inter-professional collaboration, zoonoses, , Europe, Mediterranean. ese a rch

Riassunto (La collaborazione multidisciplinare in sanità pubblica veterinaria). La collaborazione mul- R tidisciplinare è riconosciuta necessaria da secoli ed ha una lunga tradizione. Ha solide fondamenta e si rivela indispensabile per il controllo di molti fattori di rischio. La sua attuazione pratica incontra difficoltà in molti punti critici. Significativi esempi di modelli di collaborazione multidisciplinare sono attualmente offerti dalle attività del Centro Mediterraneo per il Controllo delle Zoonosi e dalla rete Med-Vet-Net della Comunità Europea. Parole chiave: collaborazione interprofessionale, zoonosi, sicurezza alimentare, Europa, Mediterraneo.

Introduction The necessity of collaboration has been surveyed by Human medicine and animal medicine have devel- many publications, courses, conferences etc. A funda- oped as “one medicine” starting from the times in mental document is the declaration of Alma Ata [1] which their bases were laid until the mid 18th century stating that “primary health care involves, in addition when specialisation proved necessary and led to the to the health sector, all related sectors and aspects of establishment of modern veterinary schools. Mention national and community development, in particular must be made of outstanding physicians (Hippocrates, agriculture, animal husbandry, food industry and other Redi, Galen, Fracastorius, Lancisi, Ramazzini) who sectors”. The need for collaboration was also examined faced human and animal . The founders of and recommended in two recent meetings of WHO [2] microbiology (Pasteur, Koch, and so on) investigated and FAO [3]. the aetiological agents of both human and animal dis- This paper will discuss some problems nowadays eases. Also in the earliest texts on communicable dis- facing the practice of collaboration as well as special eases the two fields are not dealt with separately. issues concerning the Mediterranean area and Europe. The separation has been the logical consequence of the construction of different fields of action, made nec- essary by the evolution of the disciplines and of the The practice of social and economic context, but common areas have multidisciplinary collaboration remained relevant and are required by modern devel- The risk factors requiring inter-professional collabo- opments. In two separate branches ration are: have developed: the first (prevailingly public) dealing - zoonoses (all); with communicable diseases (zoonoses included), food - human diseases connected with food of animal origin; safety, management of animal populations, animal - animal population control; welfare and environmental problems connected with - animal-connected occupational diseases; animals; the second (prevailingly private, devoted to - arthropods common to man and animals (disease vec- the tradition of “one medicine”) practicing the care of tors included); animals (farm, companion, sports), and continuing the - pests and vector vertebrates; tradition of farriery. - detection of drug-resistant agents;

Indirizzo per la corrispondenza (Address for correspondence): Alfredo Caprioli, Dipartimento di Sanità Alimentare ed Animale, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]. 398 Luca Busani, Alfredo Caprioli, Agostino Macrì, et al.

- environmental pathogenic agents; result is that services, professions and mass media pay - substances used to protect animal health; attention to “fashionable” , while the control - substances used to increase animal production; of classical endemics (brucellosis, bovine tuberculo- - products able to induce resistance in pathogenic agents; sis, rabies and others) is neglected although being of - environmental contamination; greater social importance. - emergencies involving humans and animals; A serious emerging problem (and an instructive mod- - use of animals for human welfare and therapy; el) is the of avian influenza which requires - co-existence of animals with persons exposed to spe- the collaboration of public and private physicians and cial risk. , as well as of wildlife specialists. These The bases for inter-professional collaboration are: should co-operate also with administrators (politicians) - physicians should know the zoonoses reported in and economists to face the social and financial issues animals in the area (e.g. brucellosis, anthrax, rabies, involved in the control of the . emerging zoonoses); All too often there are scarce knowledge of and - veterinarians should know which zoonoses are re- consideration for the welfare of animals and their ported in humans in the region; role in human wellbeing. For example, the co-exist- - the same applies for other animal-connected problems; ence of animals with immunodepressed persons or of - legislation should provide for compulsory informa- cats with pregnant women is not always accepted: a tion on common problems; consultation with a well informed could - cases of zoonoses and other animal-connected prob- solve the problem. lems in humans should be reported to veterinary Food safety is a field of “passive cooperation”. The services that will perform epidemiological investi- fact that food of animal origin is safe because it has gation and take the necessary measures; undergone veterinary inspection is often ignored. - cases of zoonoses and other related problems should Food-associated infection outbreaks cause sometimes be reported to medical services to identify persons inter-professional conflicts and public alarm. at risk and take appropriate measures; Often the inter-service report of zoonoses (brucel- - planning of common action (e.g. in epidemics or losis, anthrax, taeniasis/cysticercosis, cystic echino- emergencies) should be organised; coccosis) in humans or animals is omitted even if - common information and training should be organ- required by law. The same applies to the detection of ised; contaminants (estrogens, , dioxins) in food - health education and public information should be of animal origin. These omissions result in increased worked out jointly. difficulties in identifying possible consequences in The main critical points [4] are: humans. - competitiveness between sectors, services, profes- A modern emerging concept is that “public health sions, persons, etc.; operators” are all the workers involved in the con- - different administrative locations; trol of zoonoses, food safety, management of animal - conflicting competences; populations and related fields. Collaboration with - professional weakness; medical and veterinary practitioners is also important. - different availability of personnel and resources; Another relevant prerequisite is the contribution by - different access to the attention of public adminis- professionals not directly operating in public health, trators and mass media; such as administrators, city planners, educators, etc. - different cultural backgrounds; - different evaluation of priorities; - different languages; Veterinary and medical integrated - difficulties in recognising common objectives; approach to foodborne zoonoses - lack of knowledge of legislation; surveillance in the European Union - lack of knowledge of productive structures (food It is self-evident that integrated surveillance will re- production, processing chain included); quire a strong multidisciplinary approach. Medical, vet- - lack of knowledge of the real needs of consumers; erinary, and food microbiologists should be involved - lack of knowledge of other service(s). as well as medical and veterinary epidemiologists. While it is generally recognised that most of the The EU has recently reconsidered its strategy for the emerging and re-emerging infections are of zoonotic control of foodborne zoonoses, both in human and vet- origin, on the other hand there is insufficient consid- erinary health sectors. eration for endemic classical zoonoses. While “new Rules on surveillance of zoonotic infections, through zoonoses” such as BSE, West Nile fever and oth- community surveillance networks, are included in the ers are attracting great attention and resources, “old legislation on human communicable infectious dis- zoonoses” are often overlooked and considered of eases (Decision 2119/98/EC). A relevant contribution scarce interest. Zoonotic leishmaniasis re-emerging to the harmonisation between human and veterinary in the Northern Mediterranean is considered a priority public health legislation arose from Directive 2003/99/ in areas where Brucellosis and cystic hydatidosis are EC which recently implemented the legislation on the old endemic infections implying more important con- surveillance and control of foodborne zoonoses. This sequences for human and animals. The most frequent Directive requires that EU Member States collect rele- Collaboration in veterinary public health 399

vant and comparable data in order to identify and char- governments on aspects of microbiological food safety, acterise hazards, to assess exposures and to identify human health risks, animal diseases and welfare. risks related to zoonoses and zoonotic agents with a The multidisciplinary area of expertise (human health, “farm-to-fork” approach. All the data have to be com- veterinary public health, epidemiology, risk analysis, municated to the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) statistics, microbiology, food science, molecular genetic and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and and immunology) creates a broad critical mass of knowl- Control (ECDC). edge and experience enabling the vertical integration of Even if surveillance over some zoonoses (brucellosis, expertise throughout the “whole food chain” and the campylobacteriosis, cystic echinococcosis, listeriosis, development of cost-effective control strategies, which salmonellosis, trichinellosis, tuberculosis, Shiga-toxin- will have an impact on zoonotic diseases incidence and, producing Escherichia coli infections) is mandatory, consequently, on their social and economic costs. interventions on any zoonotic agents along the entire food-chain must take into consideration the situation in humans in terms of occurrence, gravity and trends as The experience in the MME regions well as in animals, foods and feeds. It is rather evident that basic principles for the effec- Investigation on foodborne infection outbreaks is an tive prevention, surveillance and control of zoonoses, example of the integrated approach to zoonoses and is foodborne diseases, occupational health and public provided for by the directive with particular emphasis. health education programmes must include, as essen- Co-operation between human and veterinary authori- tial components, intersectoral collaboration and co-or- ties aims at providing epidemiological and microbio- dination. In this context, two brucellosis epidemiologi- logical data for the identification of potential causes, cal surveillance projects have been implemented by sources and routes of infection. Exchange of informa- the WHO/Mediterranean Zoonoses Control Centre in tion among medical, veterinary and food reference Syria and Jordan during 2003-2005. laboratories, both at the national and the EU level is In most of the MME countries, the above-mentioned also required. A crucial point is the comparability and essential concept is practically inexistent. Therefore, harmonisation of the laboratory methods and data col- the first basic rule both the projects have been based lection. Surveillance should include isolates of the upon, was the re-organization of the vertical data-flow. specified agents from human cases, foodstuffs, poten- This activity includes data collection at peripheral level, tial animal reservoirs and feeds. forwarding for analysis and interpretation at central It is clear that zoonotic diseases of public health sig- level, and finally feedback to the sub-national and lo- nificance must be defined considering their impact on -hu cal services. At the same time, horizontal communica- man and, therefore, managed by the medical sector, but tion is automatically provided by the exchanging and such diseases need to be controlled from the veterinar- processing between the two sectors (public health and ians, frequently at the farm level. In a few countries like animal health) of all the data collected. The whole sys- Denmark, Sweden and the UK, there is a close co-opera- tem is supported by a computerized network using a tion between public health and veterinary central insti- flexible software adapted to the country’s conditions tutes although in most European countries co-operation and needs. between these services is poor. The inclusion of the ter- Professionals (physicians, veterinarians and tech- ritorial veterinary services into the public health system nicians), selected to operate the system, have been could make this integration easier. Italy, for example, has trained in all aspects relevant to their new duties and greatly facilitated the harmonisation of the activities for on the value and benefits of side-by-side work, co-or- surveillance of foodborne zoonoses like or dination and contribution. Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli. Joint reports on salmo- The new form of the epidemiological surveillance nella, in which the characteristics (serotypes, phagetypes, system is now in full and successful operation in four resistance profiles, molecular typing etc.) of Governorates of Syria, where it is shortly expected to isolates from human infections with those from animals, cover the whole country, and it is also progressing to food and the environment are compared contributing to meet its targets in Jordan. the understanding of the epidemiology and transmission The re-organization of the brucellosis epidemiologi- of such infections to humans. cal surveillance system in the above-mentioned two Finally, inter-professional collaboration in zoonoses countries, including the horizontal intercommunication research, from medical and veterinary perspective, is for the first time established, is of utmost importance. promoted by the EU with the Med-Vet-Net network of It reduces underreporting at the lowest possible level, excellence (http://www.medvetnet.org/cns/templates/ and better identifies the infection sources and cases doc.php?id=5). This network is funded by the EU 6th distribution among different occupational, age, and Framework Programme, within the “Quality and Safety other category groups. However, the most important of Food” Priority Area, Med-Vet-Net and comprises 16 achievement is that the inter-professional collaboration partners (national veterinary laboratories, central medi- has been established and its beneficial effect has been cal reference or public health laboratories for infectious understood and assessed. diseases) from among 10 Countries. The involved insti- The conclusion that could be drawn from the activi- tutions have responsibilities for research and provision ties performed is that, besides agreements at theoreti- of advice and consultancy to their respective national cal levels upon crucial issues such as intersectoral col- 400 Luca Busani, Alfredo Caprioli, Agostino Macrì, et al.

laboration and co-ordination, initiatives and activities tonomous discipline with a number of specialisations. should be translated into practice, being the only instru- Various forms of collaboration have grown both inside ments which could really make evident the importance the professional fields (mixed practices, public health and benefits of adopting such strategies and practices. teams) and among other professions involving different public health operators who also include professionals only occasionally interested in the sector. Conclusions Building up collaboration is a slow process, which Veterinary medicine has its origins in two main roots: in some areas is already advanced, is just beginning in farriery (which has developed into the modern private others, but has still to start in the majority of regions. veterinary practice) and medicine (“one medicine”) in The WHO/Mediterranean Zoonoses Control Centre which physicians, besides their usual responsibilities, was born as an inter-professional organism 26 years were also involved in contrasting human and animal ago and has always worked in order to build and foster epidemics. This situation evolved into the modern vet- an inter-disciplinary culture. Recently, important re- erinary public health embracing all veterinary activi- sults have been achieved in the control of human and ties associated with human health. Inter-disciplinary animal brucellosis in Jordan and Syria. collaboration has been required by food inspection, hu- The EU has supported the inter-professional approach man-animal relationship management, and control of in the field of foodborne zoonoses through a series of zoonoses (once recognised). The social and economic legislative and professional initiatives. These are based consequences of animal pandemics drove governments on the improvement and standardisation of diagnostic to mobilise the best scientists available (who were of- procedures and surveillance. The exchange of informa- ten, but not always, physicians). The achievement of tion at the national and international levels is also man- collaboration passed through alternating phases in the datory. Of particular importance is the constitution of the different historical times according to the advance- Med-Vet-Net network, within the “Quality and Safety of ments of science and the progress of individual econo- Food” Priority Area, aiming at harmonising the controls mies. throughout the “whole food-chain” in the EU. The present, developed veterinary medicine has ex- acted its own autonomous space, and has now attained Submitted on invitation. professional, social and scientific recognition as an au- Accepted on 5 October 2006.

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