15–17 November, 2005
A Workshop in the People's Republic of China

Conference Summary
Beyond Zoonoses: One World – One Health,
The Threat of Emerging Diseases to
Human Health, Agriculture and Conservation:
Implications for Public Policy

A three-day workshop devoted to mapping out the links among animal health, human health, conservation and policy, and to identifying creative approaches to protecting the health of people, animals, and ecosystems.

"Monkey pox," "SARS," "Ebola" and "avian influenza" are now household words. In Asia, avian influenza has challenged food security and undermined economic growth across the region. In the face of crises like these, untested efforts to control the spread of the disease have had severe negative impacts on and implications for conservation and human livelihoods, turning nature into a perceived threat to public health. In a world where public health is an international security concern, all parties need to take a careful look at how people and governments react to new and emerging disease outbreaks.

This workshop will review situations from around Asia and elsewhere where incursions into forests, dietary choices, an enormous trade in wildlife involving markets densely packed with live animals from around the globe, and other alterations of relationships between humans, domestic animals and the natural world have altered the ecology of pathogens and their potential hosts, sometimes with frightening results.

Today, a localized disease outbreak can quickly spread globally, and the economic impacts can undermine efforts to reduce poverty and strengthen food security. We are in an era of "one health," and our global institutional arrangements urgently need to recognize and address this reality. The purpose of this symposium is to take a holistic and multidisciplinary look at the "missing links" in terms of how the world is currently addressing new and emerging zoonotic diseases in the context of public health andenvironmental stewardship.

Can a more proactive and collaborative approach to disease prevention than we have seen to date be created, one involving partnerships between wildlife health professionals and other conservationists, domestic animal health monitoring agencies, private industry, and the public health sector?

A first step on that path, this workshop proposes through a review of recent outbreaks of zoonotic disease and policy response to assess where the priorities of conservation and public health conflict, and where they align. More specifically, it will seek to:

1. Bring together experts from public health, agriculture, and natural resource sectors to explore how health issues transcend traditional divisions.

2. Identify examples where sound conservation activities and policies contribute to animal and human health at the local, regional, and global scales.

3. Identify examples where sound animal and human health policies and practicies contribute to conservation success at the local, regional, and global scales.

4. Assess whether the public health issues warrant better regulation of the international trade in wildlife.

5. Determine next steps for strengthening linkages and collaboration among agencies and organizations working with human and agricultural health and natural resource management.

6. Identify the legislation, regulation, agreements, or policies needed to fill gaps in promoting health and conservation at a global scale.