In 2000, the concept of “One Health” was introduced to name what was already well known: human health and animal health are interdependent and linked to the ecosystems in which they coexist. Since then, there has not been a congress for veterinarians that did not repeat this idea as a necessary mantra. It is true that this approach, which advocates a multidisciplinary approach to public health problems and now includes doctors, pharmacists, biologists, microbiologists or veterinarians, is rapidly gaining a following among other health professionals, and the number of those advocating exclusionary approaches is decreasing. (because these are privileged, as if the knowledge included professional areas as well). In the political class, a sense of health is also beginning to be heard, although less than desirable, due to fears arising from new pandemics, epidemics, emerging diseases and, of course, zoonoses that until recently were unimaginable in these latitudes. In public opinion, among the people, this remains only an Anglicism, a play on words with a meaning that few can understand. But I will tell you something that you will understand and that is also closely linked to the idea of One Health: the VAT on veterinary services at the maximum rate of 21%, which was increased in 2012 without any remedy or amendment, does not penalize your pet’s health. Your pet also endangers the health of your family and the people around you.
Veterinarians are tired of repeating during the Covid-19 crisis that the damn coronavirus is of animal origin and that at some point it crossed species boundaries and infected humans. I remember well the first months when preprints (scientific papers not yet peer-verified) about the possible threats posed by feline coexistence were distributed like wildfire warnings. These suspicions, established only at the laboratory level, did not go beyond the category of anecdote, but many hoaxes and alarms were produced in the stormy path to distract from the total ignorance that existed about that epidemic. I can confirm this because I participated in the Group of Experts on this subject established at the General Council of Spanish Veterinary Colleges. However, this concern was not sufficient reason for the Government to invite any veterinarian to the expert council then constituted; but over time we learned that there was no such council (sic).
We are certainly preaching in the desert that this “One Health” approach should be ubiquitous because reality overwhelmingly proves us right. Both SARS-CoV-2 and its predecessors, MERS CoV and SARS-CoV, were diseases transmitted from animals to humans and vice versa (zoonosis). In fact, in just over a decade the World Health Organization has issued six global alerts, including one for covid, and five of these were zoonotic. No wonder: 60% of human infectious diseases and 75% of emerging diseases come from the animal kingdom.
But we continue to turn our backs on the evidence. Because I insist that it is not only the two-way animal-human relationship that determines health problems, but also the environment. We have been following with concern the development of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHE), which has spread throughout the country since July. We are not talking about zoonosis, but we need to attribute its emergence to environmental factors. EHE is a textbook example of the emergence of a vector-borne diseases, particularly culicoid mosquitoes, already present in Spain as a result of climate change and is directly related to the increase of the cervix population in the natural environment. Most affected species and drought situation. It originates from deer, fallow deer, and roe deer, and its transmission to domestic ruminants is caused by lack of food and water, overpopulation of these species, and often by movement into areas where livestock are widely grazed.
Consider Nile Fever, spread by the same mosquito that attacks horses or humans and is very common today due to climate change (a zoonosis that, unfortunately, has already caused deaths in recent months). Or Q Fever, another zoonotic disease most commonly diagnosed in humans in the province of Alicante, which doctors and veterinarians have jointly argued for adopting a One health approach in the Generalitat’s surveillance and control program. And despite the statistics, despite the known role that rodents or felines play in transmitting the virus to humans, this necessary approach did not go beyond being explicitly stated in the introduction to that text.
I now get down to the trite indirect tax without much dialectical effort: whenever the maximum VAT rate is applied to veterinary services, the idea of One health is mistreated. Applying 21% to the vaccine against rabies or Leishmania, both of which are zoonotic, is contrary to the principle of prevention, which should be included in public health policies. It is difficult to understand that so much and rapid progress has been made in legislation to improve the animal welfare of our dogs and cats, yet so little attention has been paid to issues affecting their health, which in turn affects ours. I regret to say that animal or human welfare is not possible without ensuring health first.