2 One Health and the environment

In the field of AMR, the environmental sector has received less attention and has been studied for less time than the human and animal sectors.

One Health (Figure 3) is a central concept designed to place the environment on the same footing as the other domains with respect to the development and spread of AMR.

Described image
Figure 3 One Health, showing the interactions between the human and animal sectors and the environment.

One Health has been introduced in more detail in the course Introducing a One Health approach to AMR. As a reminder, One Health means an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems (WHO, n.d. 1). As you can see from Figure 3, a One Health approach spans different sectors, including the human domain, terrestrial and aquatic animals (including animal production), plant production and the environment.

1.1 The role of the environment in infectious disease transmission

2.1 Processes involved in the development and transmission of AMR