Gilles Salvat, Deputy Director General and Director of Health & Animal Welfare at ANSES.
“We cannot deal with human health without worrying regarding animal health and vice versa. “
« In twenty years, there have been three emergences of coronavirus, Sars, MERS and SARS COV2, all three most likely linked to initial contamination by an animal species that served as a relay between bats and humans. Today, 60% of infectious diseases are common to humans and animals et 75% of emerging infectious diseases are of animal origin. The current COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted these interactions and the fact that human health cannot be addressed without addressing animal health, and vice versa.
Most of the current emergences take place in the intertropical zones, where human intrusion in complex ecosystems leads to the passage of new viruses from the animal to the man. These emergences of infectious diseases from wild animals have brought the concept “One Health”, One Healthaccording to which we share with animals the same planet and the same pathogens and infectious diseases.
Because we work at the interface of animal health, food safety and environmental health, at ANSES, we attach great importance to continuum between humans, animals and the environment that they share. This includes studying the complex interactions between humans and animals and their roles in the passage of pathogens between species. Exchanges between animal health and human medicine specialists must be strengthened because the scientific communities have every interest in pooling their knowledge of the pathogenic agents that constitute their common concerns. »
