The One Medicine continuing-education track offers sessions every day about the connections between veterinary and human medicine.

Today's One Medicine sessions cover international health, particularly with respect to agricultural animals, and hot topics in epidemiology. Tomorrow, an all-day workshop within the One Medicine track will focus on risk and crisis communication.

Monday' sessions start with brief presentations about the one-health concept—encompassing human, animal, and environmental health. One of the introductory speakers is Dr. Lonnie King, director of the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"'One health' provides the framework of how we address contemporary issues in public health," Dr. King noted in remarks prior to the convention. "We can't understand human health issues if we just look through the lens of human health. We need to understand the role of animals, animal products, and the environment in producing healthy outcomes as well as threats to human health.

"We can't continue to look at these spheres individually. The focus has to be on how they are interconnected—and our strategy for the future is on how, by improving the condition of one, we can improve the conditions of the others."

Other one-health presentations on Monday pertain to disease surveillance, pandemic influenza, food safety in a global market, and the interrelationships between pet and owner health.

The One Medicine track concludes Tuesday with sessions on vaccination, occupational health, emergency response, foodborne illness, and other important topics.