One welfare a framework to improve animal welfare and human well-being

xiv Preface

the discussion some mentioned that the concept of One Welfare had in fact

been mentioned by others in the past, although not in such a comprehensive

way, with most focusing on particular aspects of the multiple ones described

previously. All agreed that while it had been named, no follow-up work had

really been done to develop it, and as a result it had not been widely adopted

or taken forward. There was wide discussion around the concept and its

possible outputs, as well as the overlap with the One Health concept. Some

thought it would be best to focus on One Health, for simplicity; however,

after the full discussion the majority agreed that having a welfare-focused

platform could be a very useful tool to help improve animal welfare, human

well-being and environmental goals. This would avoid the risk of notifiable

disease and other health aspects taking over the welfare part of a single One

Health concept.

It was not a government priority at the time to pursue this novel ini-

tiative but, as the stakeholder meeting raised very positive momentum, we

agreed that I would continue exploring this concept privately on a volun-

tary basis. I then set up a private research initiative in collaboration with

non-governmental colleagues, creating a new One Welfare ‘team’.

I approached a number of stakeholders whom I knew had been under-

taking One Welfare work through their careers. They included Mike Appleby,

who through his role as a welfare scientist has produced and delivered many

educational publications and talks related to One Welfare; and Freda Scott-

Park and Charles Smith, who both successfully lead One Welfare NGOs: the

Links Group and the Farming Community Network, respectively, within the

domestic and farming environments.

We agreed to publish a letter to discuss the concept of One Welfare

and invite others who had an interest and who had spoken or published

material related to One Welfare in the past to join our team and take part in

the full article we were preparing. This letter was published in the December

2015 issue of the Veterinary Record (García Pinillos et al., 2015). A number

of replies arrived, expressing an interest in participating and flagging up

papers that had previously referred to the concept of One Welfare. It was

in this way that we confirmed the absence of a cohesive approach and a

fully comprehensive paper to cover this concept. After this I invited two

further colleagues, Xavier Manteca and Antonio Velarde, who undertake

key research and educational roles in animal welfare and One Welfare topics

at international level, to strengthen the global focus of the project.

Following this I worked further on the draft paper I circulated in 2015,

and circulated an expanded version to One Welfare team colleagues for

comments and further input. The paper ‘One Welfare – a framework for

improving animal welfare and human well-being’ was finally completed

and submitted for publication. Given the unusual format and topic of the

paper it was challenging to fit this into a scientific publication, and it was

finally agreed that the paper would be published as a viewpoint within the

Veterinary Record. The section stimulated much discussion and helped to

further strengthen the topic.