UAF to host international One Health meeting, public forum

May 18, 2018

Scientists and health officials from six Arctic nations, including the United States, will meet at the University of Alaska Fairbanks May 21-22 for two days of discussions and presentations centered around One Health.

One Health is an approach to public policy and research that focuses on the ways that environmental, animal and human health are interconnected. The concept has a wide variety of scientific, public health and policy applications.

“One Health is a way of looking at systemic issues and trying to solve them from the root cause, rather than just treating the symptoms. It starts with gathering information at a community level,” said Dr. Arleigh Reynolds, a UAF professor of clinical nutrition and veterinarian who is slated to lead UAF’s new One Health Initiative. “The public should care about this new approach because their voice counts in the process.”

Next week’s meetings, hosted by UAF and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Arctic Investigations Program in Anchorage, will bring together representatives from Finland, Canada, Russia, Norway and Iceland, as well as scientists from UAF and health officials from the CDC. The meetings are organized by the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. The visit began in Minneapolis and includes stops in Anchorage, Seward and Fairbanks as part of an ongoing effort to build relationships that could eventually lead to collaboration on One Health research projects, education and outreach in the circumpolar North.

Morning sessions on the first day will include a dozen presentations from UAF scientists on projects that are already using the One Health concept. Topics include the effects of climate change on the availability of wild game, management of diseases that can pass from animals to humans and Alaska Native health. The presentations will be live-streamed at media.uaf.edu. Following is a preliminary schedule of presentations:

9:20 – 10:30 a.m.

Jim Berner – Village-based environmental biomonitoring research

Todd O’Hara - Mercury and the food web

Arleigh Reynolds - Dogs as sentinels in rural Alaska

Kirsten Hueffer - One Health zoonotic disease management

Tula Holmen - Subsistence food safety and security in Alaska

Todd Brinkman- Climate change effect on availability of game

10:40 – 11:45 am

Diane O’Brien - CANHR overview, Monitoring dietary change in AK Native people using stable isotopes: a case study of traditional foods and vitamin D

Joel Cladouhos – Blue Economy

Kelly Drew, Brian Barnes - Hibernation as comparative model

Srijan Aggarwal - Biofilms

Erin Trochim, Lindsey Heaney - Predict Fest team: new approaches to One Health

Mary Ehrlander- One Health and the Social Sciences

The two-day event will culminate in a public forum on Tuesday, May 22, from 3-5 p.m. in Room 501 of the Akasofu Building on the Fairbanks campus. The forum will include brief presentations from international experts and UAF and CDC representatives, followed by discussion and questions. Members of the public, as well as local veterinary and medical professionals, scientists and Alaska Native leaders and elders, are encouraged to attend and share their perspectives.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Arleigh Reynolds, 907-474-1928, ajreynolds@alaska.edu. Kate Fowlie, CDC, 404-314-2111, kfowlie@cdc.gov.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Monday morning sessions run from 9 a.m. to noon in Room 109 of the Butrovich Building and are open to press. They will also be live streamed at media.uaf.edu. The public forum on Tuesday, May 22, is also open to press, and will be recorded and available for viewing at media.uaf.edu.

ON THE WEB: https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/index.html.