By Katie Burns

Humans, animals, and environments everywhere interact to share one health.

The One Health Initiative has promoted this one-health concept for several years. Now the One Health Commission has been launched to help address, more directly, interdisciplinary health issues in the United States and throughout the global village.

On June 29, the commission incorporated as a nonprofit organization. Its main mission is to increase cooperation among health professions and other groups to prevent and treat zoonotic diseases and other medical conditions common to humans and animals.

Key goals of the One Health Commission include creating an integrated strategy to improve public health and developing a research agenda relevant to one health.

Dr. Roger K. Mahr proposed the One Health Initiative and commission in July 2006 when he took office as AVMA president. The American Medical Association and American Society of Microbiology have been among the strong supporters.

The one-health concept has been percolating through portions of the scientific community in recent years, but the One Health Commission plans to extend awareness of the concept to the entire scientific community along with policymakers and the public.

The original One Health Initiative Task Force recommended holding a One Health Summit. The summit, which is currently on the schedule for this fall, will help launch the One Health Commission.

In addition, the task force recommended commissioning a study of one health by the National Academies. The One Health Joint Steering Committee, which coordinated the transition from the task force to the commission, established contact with the National Academies about conducting such a study.

The One Health Commission also seeks to identify model projects that illustrate the value of applying the one-health concept, and the commission might consider creating additional demonstration projects. World Rabies Day is an example of a project that applies the one-health concept, teaching people about how vaccinating animals for rabies helps prevent rabies in humans.

The One Health Commission will engage international groups such as the World Health Organization, World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to extend U.S. efforts in one health globally.