One Health pilot project launched to improve livestock health

Bengaluru: Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India, on Tuesday, launched One Health, a pilot project. One-Health is a multi-sectoral approach that takes into consideration human, animal and environment health and the interconnectivity and interdependence of these three elements.

Also, the capacity building plan in English and Kannada and One Health brochure was launched in the Kannada language.

Addressing the launch of the pilot project, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying Atul Chaturvedi said, "The One Health India program will work to improve livestock health, human health, wildlife health, and environmental health by institutionalizing the coordination among animal, human and wildlife departments, improving disease diagnosis and surveillance, digitizing the data collection and sharing mechanism and enabling enhanced communication among community members on the need to pay attention to zoonotic diseases and for implementing One Health. This pilot project will help institutionalize the coordination among various sectors thereby making data sharing and reporting procedure on disease outbreaks feasible. It will facilitate, strengthen, and integrate the laboratories in a network. The project aims to support the development of a targeted surveillance plan and integrate data with the digital architecture of the National Digital Livestock Mission (NDLM). The pilot in Karnataka will form the basis for development of the One Health Framework for India."

Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Dr Praveen Malik said, "With the launch of the One Health in Karnataka, we look forward to integrating human, environmental, and animal health. Six interventions planned for the pilot will result in better coordination amongst different relevant sectors and capacity building of different teams."

"We are proud that the One Health pilot project is being implemented in Karnataka. This pilot will go a long way in helping us improve facilities and infrastructure in our State," said Salma K Fahim, Secretary, State Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries.

State Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (WL) Vijaykumar Gogi and Dr Pushplatha, in-chargeDirector, Department of Health and Family Welfare, said they were excited to implement the One Health framework in the State and they indicated the commitment of the department to support this initiative. Also, they look forward to integrating animal health with human and environment health.

On this occasion, Alkesh Wadhwani, Director, Poverty Alleviation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) expressed pleasure on the launch of this pilot project and showed his support to Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying for the implementation of the National One Health Framework for India.DAHD is piloting this project with the financial support of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as as the implementing partner.