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Veterinarians are critical public health professionals. Veterinary practitioners across the globe, regardless of sector, are committed to promoting public health. The nature of veterinary training inherently promotes an interdisciplinary approach to solving global health problems, including integrated use of public health practices such as disease detection, reporting, and surveillance, as well as health education and prevention. It is well established that the health of animals contributes to the health of humans, and vice versa, in multiple ways; by protecting against zoonotic disease, bolstering a sustainable food supply, fostering the human-animal bond, and preserving ecological systems. We believe that involving veterinarians in decision-making has significant advantages over dealing with problems in health professional silos, as has been the case with coordinated human and animal zoonoses vaccination efforts, integrated diagnostic laboratory infrastructure, and integrated surveillance and response to disease outbreaks. The importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, including veterinarians, to solve global health problems has been exemplified with COVID-19. The issue of climate change and its impact on planetary health is no different. The need for veterinarians to acknowledge climate change as within their scope of practice, redefine their roles in the climate change space, and take ownership and active roles as stewards of climate change adaptation and resilience. Climate change impacts the planet, public health and veterinary practice. Ultimately, climate change is a public health problem, veterinarians are public health professionals, and, thus, climate change and the promotion of planetary health are veterinary issues. However, these kinds of activities cannot be conducted within a vacuum, and support from cross-sector collaborations, stakeholders, and policy are critical for veterinarians to be effective stewards in these areas. Gaps must be bridged between veterinary practice and policy decision-making to ensure veterinarians are supported in public health capacities. At Veterinarians International, we recognize the importance of the One Health approach: the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment. Policy makers must include the voices of veterinarians in their decision making process around climate agendas.
Approximately one million plant and animal species are currently facing extinction. That is why it’s so important for COP15 - the UN Biodiversity Conference - happening in Montreal this month. It’s crucial that our world leaders are made aware of the biodiversity crisis so that they can put measures in place to protect and support the ecosystems humanity relies on for survival. As biodiversity decreases, climate change increases, as does the risk of novel zoonotic diseases, such as COVID-19. All of this has been driven by human activity, so it’s imperative that humans are the ones to fix this. What is adopted in Montreal will essentially be a global blueprint to save the planet’s dwindling biodiversity. That’s why the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference is so important!
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Dream job
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Acting to address biodiversity loss has never been more urgent!!
VITA: VI Takes ACTION Destruction and Restoration. This will be the theme of the next generations, with nature being both our foe and our greatest ally. On this last day of #COP27, where world leaders have come together to discuss how to confront the global catastrophe of rapid climate change caused by human industrialization and unfettered consumption, we turn to biodiversity and animal health as a focus for solutions. Climate and nature agendas are not just entwined but reliant upon each other, where a positive change in one sector correlates to positive gains in the other. To minimize the future destruction of our environment, agreements and promises must turn into action today. With our VI Takes Action campaign, we are taking up this call to action to support biodiverse regions with limited economic resources. In Sri Lanka, we are training and supplying veterinary doctors and animal-care specialists to care for the spectrum of wildlife affected by a hindered animal care system as the country’s economy continues to navigate a critical time. In Kenya, we have invested in the national veterinary training program helping to facilitate relationships between our partners and supplying the means for expanded educational opportunities and the tools necessary to equip these future veterinarians. Our partners in Chile have had continued success with our support in reaching new members of the community that have struggled to afford animal care in the past. We are fighting for the future of our planet’s health by investing in it today. “If we invest in nature and nature’s infrastructure, forests, coral reefs, mangroves, coastal forests, well, it protects us from high storms. It provides a habitat for species, but it also stores carbon. So, it has both a mitigation and an adaptation dimension,” Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director “What can I do?” a lot of us may ask. Educating yourself and your peers is always step one, but we must keep marching forward. Voting with your dollar, donating your time, and committing your energy to the world around you are all good ways to get involved. If you want more ideas on contributing, please visit our website and consider joining us to empower the future of veterinary care and conservation.
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This is very nice.
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PARTNER UPDATE. Veterinarians International is on a mission of empowering and training a worldwide community of vets to respond to animal disease and suffering. How is that a climate action? The answer, they propose, is naturally quite simple… Guided by the One Health approach—an understanding that human health is integrally connected to the health of animals and our shared environments—Veterinarians International keeps its eye on the critical linkages between healthy wildlife, healthy domesticated animals and global human health. “Vets International became a We Don’t Have Time partner in order to represent the plight of the animal kingdom and its vulnerability to climate change, while informing the public about the disease risks that will escalate as climate change intensifies,” says Dr. Scarlett Magda, Founding President of the U.S.-based non-profit. Watch Dr. Scarlett Magda speaking during STHLM+50 Climate Hub The carbon value of a thriving elephant? Priceless. She works closely with Ralph Chami, who is the assistant director at the International Monetary Fund’s Institute for Capacity Development, currently on sabbatical. Ralph is helping to place specific financial values on the ecosystem services of the wildlife that Scarlett’s vet teams care for in economically challenged areas. These values can translate directly to the carbon credit market. Ralph explains, “This work started with Fabio Berzaghi’s paper in Nature, where he found that the elephants in the forests of the Congo basin increase carbon sequestration in the forest between seven and fourteen percent, depending on their density in the forest.” “Working with Fabio, we were able to give a value to the service—the carbon sequestration service—of a single elephant,” says Ralph. “And, at the time, we came up with a value of 1.75 million USD, the value of the service of a single elephant in terms of carbon sequestration alone.” In short, the idea is to sell an elephant’s services—which means simply being an elephant as an elephant naturally is—onto the carbon credit exchange. And the possibilities extend well beyond elephants and carbon, to include other mammals and ecosystem services. “Vets International is taking this concept and looking at other species and the ecosystem web,” says Scarlett. “We’re exploring how to look beyond individual animals’ services, to evaluating the whole ecosystem.” The underlying principle is simple: Nature does what it naturally does, and that has inherent value. But Nature must be cared for or, in many cases, nursed back to health for it to do that work. The healthier the individual animals are within the forests, for instance, the healthier that forest ecosystem is. A healthy forest sequesters more carbon as well as provides other ecosystem services. On the cusp of the carbon exchange To whom would the elephants’ and other animals’ services be sold? “To all the companies that want to offset carbon,” says Ralph. “So a big tech company, for example, can purchase these services, and tick off its box for its carbon footprint, while also ticking off a box for saving elephants. Then, by saving elephants, they’re also paying the rangers that look after the elephants.” “There’s also an employment aspect to this as in employing rangers,” he explains. “In buying the services, that big tech company is also compensating local farmers for whatever interactions they might have with the elephants—because sometimes there are clashes between the local people and elephants that are hungry and going into farmland and such.” “So you’re alleviating poverty. You’re creating resilience in Nature, and therefore creating resilience for the people, stabilizing them on their lands in their land.” “And the regulated exchange is ready,” says Ralph. “What we need is the supply.” “For a market to happen, you need demand, you need supply, and you need an intermediary that puts the two together. The demand for carbon sequestration is there, and insatiable, because we have a world out there wanting to go net zero, carbon neutral, by a certain date. The exchange—the intermediary—is there,” Ralph says. “Now we need to release the supply from the politics of it all, so we can get on with it.” “Nature is the only solution for this problem,” he says. “It’s not high tech. There’s no machine that’s going to do the carbon sequestration for us, and God help us with what other unknown things it’s going to do. It’s about Nature. It has been around for billions of years, and there are no side effects.” Watch Ralph Chami speaking on the STHLM +50 Climate Hub Ecocide Law panel * * * Ralph sums up the work as a whole. “If you leave Nature alone, if you help it restore and rejuvenate, two things can happen. Nature comes back, and it rewards us by helping to fight climate change.” “How wonderful is that? And how simple,” he says. “We regain our contact with Nature, and we come back home.” He pauses, then: “We’ve been lost for a while. It’s time to come home.” For more information Visit the Veterinarians International website to learn more about their work, or get involved as an ambassador, volunteer, donate, give at work, or help them raise funds in a variety of ways.
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We recommend you very much
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very important work they are doing! We need to protect the world's biodiversity
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@marine_stephan thank you, we sure do!
In 2015, the United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which “provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” It is a coordinated effort to address the growing challenges caused by humanity's unsustainable actions and climate change. Among these 17 goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals), the theme of protecting and restoring our ecosystems, halting biodiversity loss, and ensuring healthy lives for all is immediately apparent. Our work at Veterinarians International is founded on these ideas - veterinarians are vital to realizing solutions for human/animal health and preserving biodiversity in our ecosystems. The effects of climate change continue to drive conflict and unnatural interactions between humans and wildlife. Food and water scarcity and human/climate-induced habitat destruction mean that wildlife is being forced to adapt in order to survive. In many cases this means that humans and wildlife end up having to compete for the same resources and end up finding themselves face-to-face with each other at a higher rate than ever. With this increased interaction comes several serious threats. In the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic, perhaps most salient right now is the threat of disease transmitted from wild animals to humans (known as zoonotic diseases). With 75% of emerging infectious diseases originating in wildlife, the risk of zoonotic disease transmission to human populations continues to rise with more overlap between human and animal populations. Domestic animals like dogs and cats are a big culprit in bringing humans closer to zoonotic infection - especially if they are allowed to roam freely from their human community into the surrounding natural environment. Not only do they disturb local fauna and severely threaten biodiversity, they can also pick up parasites and pathogens in the wild that can then be transmitted to humans, or wildlife. Veterinarians are an essential stopgap for reducing the spread of zoonotic infections. Through education on responsible pet ownership, vaccinations, and spay/neuter campaigns, vets play a critical role in keeping communities healthy while protecting biodiversity in sensitive regions globally. Additionally, as human-wildlife conflict intensifies, vets are urgently needed for responding to the inevitable wildlife emergencies that result. In Sri Lanka, for example, elephants whose habitats have been adversely affected by illegal deforestation and agriculture may wander onto this cultivated land in search of food. Locals sometimes resort to using exclusionary tactics like jawbombs, snares, or gunshots to deter elephants and other wildlife. Not only are vets important for responding and tending to wildlife caught in the middle of these conflicts, but they also work with local communities to educate them about healthy human-animal relationships so that future conflict can be mitigated. By equipping veterinarians with the right tools, medicine, and infrastructure, Veterinarians International is actively working towards achieving United Nations sustainable development goals and climate-positive change.
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It was recently reported that elephants are dying due to plastic consumption in Sri Lanka. It is our guess that this is happening everywhere where elephants have been displaced from their natural habitats, and food sources have been made scarce. Our hope is that more innocent lives don't need to be lost due to our negligence to live respectfully on this Earth. We invite the WDHT community to provide suggestions and ideas on how we can improve as the most influential species on Earth, and prevent catastrophes like this one. Photo credit Achala Pussalla, AP.
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This is criminal
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This is so sad. I think more countries should do what Rwanda and Kenya has already done, and ban much of the single-use plastics. But it is also important to find ways to make the local communities benefit financially from wildlife tourism. This would give them an incentive to keep the local environment clean and healthy.
Hello, I am Dr. Scarlett Magda, a veterinarian and Founding President of Veterinarians International, a non – profit organization that aims to improve the health and welfare of animals and their communities globally. We are proud to be a partner in the We Don't Have Time platform, and wish to shed light on the impact climate change, and our actions are having on animals, communities and shared ecosystems around the world. I would like to start our journey here by telling you a story that doesn’t get heard very often, and it is my wish that when you're done reading, you will look at animals and the world differently. When I was a veterinary student, my dream was to work with elephants. I made it over to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, and my first assignment was to help care for KrungSri, a 43 year old landmine victim who needed daily bandage changes. We would go on short strolls for exercise as she would walk gingerly on her partially blown up foot. Krungsri’s story is one of unintended consequences. Consequences that occur when we act from a place of greed and exploitation. Much like this sloth bear, a victim of a snare trap intended to keep wild boars off farmers properties. Our colleagues at the Elephant Transit Home, Department of Wildlife Conservation in Sri Lanka, deal with these types of injuries on a daily basis. Not all animals impacted by our actions will present as clear as Krungsri or this sloth bear, but I can tell you for the most part, the animal kingdom is suffering. Suffering more now than at any other time in human history. In the last 150 years alone, we have lost 83% of wildlife biomass. We are losing species 100 to 1000 times the natural extinction rate. Humans and livestock now make up 96% of mammalian biomass. So you may say, but I don’t like animals, why should I care? Well, besides wondering what is wrong with you to not love animals, let’s get serious here and go beyond the cute and fuzzy feel good stories. Something you should know is that more disease comes from animals to people than any other source – in fact 75% of emerging infectious diseases come from wildlife. Humans often provide opportunities for zoonoses – that is diseases that go between humans and animals, by invading habitats of animals like bats, chimps, gorillas or migrating birds which are reservoirs for disease. Leptospirosis is the most common zoonotic disease and can be found globally from Central Park to China. It’s a disease passed in wildlife urine and can infect your dog and even you causing life-threatening kidney or liver failure. Deforestation has been attributed to being the number one source of zoonotic disease emergence. When people clear forests for agriculture, lumber or their homes, forests become increasingly fragmented increasing the chances of humans and their livestock coming into contact with wildlife and contracting disease. And let’s remember, the biggest drivers of deforestation are agricultural products which are often exported to more affluent countries. And as human civilization expands, the potential for a pandemic becomes more pressing. The more we invade habitats and interact with animals, the more likely we are to contract a virus from them. So you see, deforestation not only leads to rising C02 emissions and erosion causing climate change, but increases disease emergence as well. Studies by ecologists have shown that populations of plants, mammals, birds and insects living in ecosystems with low biodiversity – that is with fewer individual species of each, tend to be more susceptible to diseases, and more effective at spreading them, than populations with ecosystems with high biodiversity. If you imagine a pig farm with thousands of pigs, vs a rainforest with thousands of different animals, it’s going to be pretty easy for a disease to run through the pig farm as its preferred targeted host is staring right at them in the face. It is clear that we are continuing to have devastating impacts on animals through our irresponsible and inappropriate interactions with them and their environment, with climate change compounding the issue. The most alarming impact is seeing what's happening with sea turtles. Since the sex of a sea turtle is determined by the heat of sand incubing their eggs, populations at the world's most important green sea turtle rookery in Eastern Australia are severely skewed, with females outnumbering males by at least 116 to 1. Furthermore, rising sea levels have destroyed nest sites by drowning eggs, and beach erosion can create small cliffs causing adults to fall on their backs and die, unable to right themselves. Brodie Moss rescues sea turtle flipped over on its back in Australia. Source: Buzzfeed I hope you are able to see the linkages between climate change, habitat destruction, animal welfare and emerging diseases. But I'd like to leave you with some hope and solutions. By being kind to animals, AND considering our daily actions we can all make a difference. The clothes you wear, the food you eat ALL has an impact – because as Leonardo DiVinci said over 500 years ago – everything is interconnected. By applying the Hippocratic oath to your life and your business – we will all be better off. This concept has been proven by thought leader and professor Raj Sisodia, where he evaluated companies like Unilever and found them to be more profitable, than those that act from a position of greed. So please be kind, not only will your heart and mind be more prosperous, but your pocket as well!
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Humans can learn a tremendous amount from elephants. Thank you.
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What comments can you make about the factory farming and possibility of zootonic disease transmission in developed countries like UK, Canada, United Stated, Italy, France.
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Factory farming should be banned. It is imperative we resort to traditional farming methods such as rotational grazing and multi-crop systems if we wish to save ourselves and our planet. Factory farming creates highly unnatural, high-stress conditions pre-disposing animals to disease and the risk for zoonosis. The greatest risk is when wildlife, primarily waterfowl interact with farms (think avian flu) and the viruses which they may carry have a chance to spread through the farm like wildfire as the animals are all lined up like an all-you can eat buffet as there is no biodiversity in the system. A 2013 study in PNAS concluded that more zoonoses will emerge as factory farming intensifies.
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Compelling, story that leads to actionable work in different places where your presence has been felt.
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Thank you for your kind words. It's an honor and a privilege to serve the communities we work in.
Patrick Kiash
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Late last month of July. The We Don't Have Time Kenya and USA chapters in collaboration with Veterinarians International (USA) and Ol Jogi Conservancy (Kenya) carried out a scoping mission to develop a model for peaceful and healthy co-existence between humans, animals and the environment. At the heart of the mission was to explore pathways to build healthy and peaceful co-existence of humans and animals with their environments through interventions geared at improving care and conservation of animals and promoting human health and development in ways that conserves and maintain the complex systems that support the communities one being Ol Jogi conservation in Laikipia county. This collaborative effort will leverage on WDHT, the largest climate social media platform to amplify various efforts and draw stakeholders and other local and international partners but also provide opportunities for global conversation on local issues affecting frontline communities in Laikipia. Veterinarian International, whose mission is to provide veterinary aid and education to improve the health and wellbeing of animals and their communities, brings with it a network of One Health experts including veterinarians, public health practitioners, animal welfare specialists and researchers, ecologists and agricultural/soil health experts who provide the key veterinary expertise, equipment and supplies for both immediate aid and disease prevention; build necessary infrastructure for animal care; and educate communities about animal health, behaviour and husbandry for long-term, sustainable solutions in their own communities. The Ol Jogi conservancy is located in Laikipia County in Kenya and is home to over half of the black Rhino population in the country. The conservancy is also home to over 20 ungulate species 5 large carnivore species, 3 primates species, elephants and numerous avian species. Ol Jogi also have a Wildlife Rescue Centre which has a state-of-art wildlife veterinary clinic, established in 1985 that offers refuge to orphaned and injured animals. The conservancy have also been very successful with Ol Jogi neighbours the Masaai community, who are traditionally pastoralist but whose livelihood and culture have been threatened by shift from extensive livestock production to intensive agriculture/cultivation, destruction of grazing habitats with human settlement and farming. Increasing cost of living and economic precarity associated with collapse of beef market in Kenya means that even those that remain pastoralist have to overstock animals as means of increasing profitability leading to overgrazing and further soil degradation. Bringing these four partners together, the Veterinary International will spearhead establishment of Ol Jogi centre of excellence for One Health and wildlife medicine by training local and international veterinarians and veterinary students, animal health technicians, animal scientists, farmers and community leaders on complex interactions between animals, humans and their environment and how to apply One Health concept in their clinical practice, research, community engagements, livestock production, regenerative farming and conservation. This will be done through collaborations with University of Nairobi, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The scoping mission was successful in identifying and meeting with the key partners with WDHT US chapter represented by Dr. Sweta Chakraborty, a risk and behavioural scientist who will lead in design of human,Veterinarian International was represented by Dr. Scarlett Magda, the founding president of Veterinary International and a One Health expert; Erin Ivory, an anthrozoologist and vice president of programs at VI and she brings on board her specialty in human-animal behaviour interactions and ways of improving animal welfare and mitigate animal-human conflicts. Also present was the VI country representative Dr. Grace Watene, a budding One Health veterinarian and epidemiologist and Jillian Semaan who works at the intersection of food climate, human health and planetary health and she will be looking at various aspects of soil health within the context of habitat regeneration. The WDHT Kenyan team was represented by Patrick Kiarie the country Representative and Peter Kamau the Kenya chapter administrator as well as Dr. Robert Josphine, a veterinarian and infectious disease immunologist. We are really excited to work and interact with Veterinarian International on this incredible project and their mission to bring harmonious existence between humans, animals and the ecosystems that supports our survival on our planet. We as we don't have time -Kenya chapter we give you a high star rate of 5! Soon we will write a long detailed article and include more pictures, we are glad for you being partners of wdht and we are looking forward to interact and partner with other organisations that has same goals to safeguard our planet before it's too late as we have no planet B. (Below is attached short video clip which is a Swahili Kenyan slogan of welcoming visitors and encouraging them there is no problem if we join hands together... ) Kind Regards. Patrick. https://youtube.com/shorts/GoEyRNOQ3ZA?feature=share
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Thank you everyone for the positive feedback and encouragement. We also hope to be able to conduct a carbon credit analysis on the grasslands and various species to be able to demonstrate their carbon sequestration capabilities. This would place further value on keeping these animals alive, their environment protected and communities supported by being responsible stewards yielding an income. We will keep you posted on all!
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This was such a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow. Don't let your hard work slip! https://duotrigordle-wordle.com/
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This was such an amazing experience. Keep up the great work!
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Great work team, would love to meet elephants again!
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True policy makers should include the voices of Veterinarians in the center stage of climate change dialogues for more solutions that you know better especially for wild animals which are very important in our biodiversity chain. Good work!
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Very interesting, just like doctors need to know about the impact of climate change on humans, it seems crucial that veterinarians who are at the forefront of seeing the impact of the climate crisis have an understanding of it as well. You're doing important work!
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@sarah_chabane Absolutely! Thanks for your feed Sarah!!!