A multi-region perspective on human and animal emerging infectious diseases, biosecurity, food security, ecosystem service protection and sustainable health

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) affect society at many levels: as high-profile diseases of international concern due to their novelty or pandemic potential and as re-emerging or changing (and sometimes ‘neglected’) diseases that impact communities or regions. Although almost all diseases of livestock affect production, and can be viewed as an issue of food security, those diseases that are zoonotic create a further burden on livestock workers, their families and potentially the wider community. The high proportion of zoonotic EIDs from wildlife has called for a reappraisal of our management of wildlife and the natural environment, valued at our most pragmatic for its ecosystem services. EIDs vary in their impact in terms of morbidity, mortality, economics and community fear. Some EIDs may be as important as an early indication of ecosystem dysfunction (Cook et al. 2004). This study focuses on EIDs of humans and animals in Australasia, South-East Asia and East Asia and explores patterns to assist integrating health and environment and improve biosecurity. The Australasian– South-East Asian – East Asian regions (defined by country in the following paragraph) is thought to be the epicentre for EIDs, in particular for zoonoses and vector borne diseases (Wilder-Smith 2009). Dramatic social and environmental changes responsible for these EIDs include rapidly increasing human population, urbanisation, migration, chronic immunosuppression related to HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and poverty, globalisation and trade, agricultural expansion and intensification, and loss of natural habitat. In this short presentation it is not possible to expand on any of these concepts; instead, a brief summary of diseases relevant to the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is presented and some aspects of wildlife interaction and land use are highlighted to introduce the major themes. This project is not yet completed so it should be viewed as a work in progress