Vetnuus | July 2024 15 sector constantly promotes the concept of One Health through its involvement in disease outbreak management and communication with animal owners. In many instances, veterinarians are seen as the main drivers and custodians of the control of major zoonotic diseases, such as rabies. However, for the One Health approach to be effective, a predefined network of professionals needs to be in place for when disease outbreaks and suspected cases arise. In South Africa, we have several examples (especially of rabies cases) where an effective One Health team made the difference between life and death for affected people. Unfortunately, South Africa also has examples where the lack of teamwork led to the death of people or the incorrect management of cases and wastage of scarce resources. Examples of rabies, brucellosis, and CCHF will be discussed. Although rabies control is the best example of a successful One Health in South Africa, there is much more work to be done. We need to extract the valuable lessons learnt from these field cases on rabies, brucellosis, and CCHF, and extrapolate them to other zoonotic diseases and health events, to better equip ourselves in the application of the One Health approach. This needs to be applied across the relevant sectors, at all governance levels in South Africa to prevent disease, save lives, and improve the use of our resources. This resonates with the Global Alliance for Rabies Control theme for 2023: “All for 1, One Health for all”. A single assay to identify multiple pathogens that cause abortions in livestock Lia S Rotherham, Antoinette Van Schalkwyk, Marco Romito Agricultural Research Council - Onderstepoort Veterinary Research, Pretoria, South Africa Abortions in livestock could be caused by numerous environmental or genetic factors in individual animals. In the majority of the cases where multiple abortions are observed in the same herd, a wide range of pathogens could cause this loss. Rapid and accurate identification of the specific pathogen involved could save the farmer time and money by implementing a proactive response to protect the remainder of the herd, as well as farm workers if a zoonotic pathogen is the causative agent. This study describes the development and validation of a single assay that could simultaneously identify 24 of the possible pathogens causing abortions in livestock. It utilizes the previously described molecular assays used to identify each of the individual pathogens as recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) in the terrestrial manual. The unique characteristic of this assay is the mechanism employed to visualize all the resulting amplicons simultaneously. African penguin health and the role of One Health in assessing threats to a charismatic, endangered species Darrell Abernethy Aberystwyth School of Veterinary Science, Department of Life Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom. The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) is endemic to southern Africa and is classified as endangered: less than 2.5% of the population remains compared to 100 years ago and the species may be extinct in the wild within our lifetime. In 2017, following an H5N8 avian influenza (HPAI) epidemic that killed many penguins, a multidisciplinary research platform was created to explore healthrelated factors that might impact the decline of the population and assist agencies involved in penguin conservation. We report here on the development of the platform, progress in the project and the extent to which a One Health approach influenced programme outcomes. The platform commenced with several workshops, inclusive of the multiple regulatory bodies, NGOs and research organisations involved in penguin conservation. Avian influenza research was identified as the priority, which was then used as a basis for sample collection and fundraising. Additional research areas were added as funding calls were assessed. Events I WVAC 2024
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