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

Introduction 5

comes to practical implementation, leaving it to prioritization exercises to

decide which aspects of One Health to implement.

Some of the elements included in One Welfare overlap with One Health;

yet, by having a separate framework we are able to identify and expose the

direct and indirect benefits of animal welfare alone, which are often lost when

mixed with animal health topics. Multidisciplinary collaboration groups ar-

ranged around One Welfare areas may be different to those with a health focus.

It is also important to ensure that there is a designated and clearly iden-

tified body of evidence, including both documented practical examples and

scientific analysis, addressing specifically the welfare and well-being aspects

that often get lost among the disease and public health priorities. While

animal welfare issues are acknowledged alongside their connection with

human well-being and the environment, there is currently not enough re-

search or evidence in the development of combined metrics for human and

animal interventions specific to this area. One Welfare creates a framework

to enable this, help its recognition and development, and make it happen.

A similar process has taken place on the environmental side, where the

Ecohealth concept specifically enables the links between ecosystems, society

and health. Here, One Health is an integral part of the Ecohealth concept and

the two are complementary and enrich one another (EcoHealth Alliance, 2017).

Some have already reported a need to provide greater importance to

animal welfare issues as part of the One Health concept (Wettlaufer et al.,

2015). The concept of One Welfare intends to do precisely that.

There needs to be clear rewards and linkages for the human health industry

for them to be better engaged. At this point, there is limited evidence to dem-

onstrate the value of collaborative work, and much of the work is anecdotal.

Many of the areas covered by One Welfare are not yet fully integrated in medi-

cine handbooks, although some have already been identified as having links

with human mental health conditions. Robust evidence has yet to be devel-

oped to fully garner the engagement and support needed for a multidisciplinary

success at global level. By providing a framework we hope this helps to unify

initiatives around the world and make it easier to gather evidence in this area.

Animal and environmental needs are, in many societies, secondary to

human needs. But if human health and well-being are inextricably linked

with animal and environmental health and well-being, then they must all be

addressed together and their interconnections better understood.

The concept of One Welfare also aims to strengthen the educational

aspects behind animal welfare improvements. Emphasizing why different

disciplines inherently interact in practice is fundamental (Lerner and Berg,

2015). Interventions need understanding and skill to be successful, but also

the right network set-up needs to be in place. For example, help and support

may be preferable to prosecution in some on-farm neglect situations, yet

this can only be possible if the enforcement authorities are trained and have

access to support services that work with them in a collaborative way. There

are currently situations where people and animals are not on anyone’s radar;

however, by setting up multiagency networks and training staff members