Improving specific disease outcomes through a One Health approach – tuberculosis

Early discoveries in the field of tuberculosis more than a century ago indicated that the success of disease control in human populations would depend on the success of control measures in animals, and vice versa. Recognising the zoonotic importance of a cattle-derived pathogen was the beginning of the eradication of bovine tuberculosis from most of the cattle population in Europe. It was a costly and resource-intensive process, but a successful one. The resulting near disappearance of zoonotic tuberculosis from the human population exemplifies probably one of the largest One Health successes in medical history. Since that time many advances in tuberculosis diagnosis, vaccinology, molecular epidemiology and immunopathogenetic studies have been made within the disciplinary divides of human and animal health research. More recently, the discovery of similarities in the interactions between the natural hosts and the causative agents of tuberculosis, as well as similarities in the resulting disease consequences, have led to a renewed appraisal of the benefits of collaborative approaches. It is to be hoped that, in the future, the combined body of scientific knowledge will also provide the basis for practical One Health initiatives at community level