Category: Noticias

January was the 'One Health' awareness month and so, we considered this an excellent opportunity to invite Professors Carlos Vasconcelos, Luísa Valente and Adriano Bordalo e Sá, members of the ICBAS 'One Health' steering group. writing their vision on the various perspectives of the concept, applied to the reality of human and animal medicine and the health of the environment.

‘One Health from a medical perspective – Human health’

Yes, we all know, when we stop to think about it, that we are not alone on the planet. But on a day-to-day basis we act as if we were. Unless… “things” impose themselves, as is the case with the COVID-19 pandemic. A microbe, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leaves its realm and, faster than Genghis Khan, puts old and highly civilized Europe, the entire western world, indeed, everyone, paralyzed in the economy (then and the bankers so important?!), in education (virtual reality helped us…) and in tourism (so many planes stopped, so many people without work…). In short, it messed with our whole lives, the big and the small things, the small and the powerful.

How was it possible? The answer is just one, clear and obvious (how can we be so stupid?!): in our EARTH everything is interconnected, the biggest animal with the smallest microbe, the trees, the wind and the sun, me, you, the black from Africa, yellow from China, red from America, the smartest and the most uncultured, the beautiful princess and the monster, the rich and the poor, we are all connected.

Whatever each one does, the interconnected network will know, feel, adapt, e pur si muove…

We treat the world as if we were absolute owners. And, at least for now, we know we shouldn't.

This time for change is urgent. All of us, each one of us, will not be able to doubt his responsibility in this struggle for the continuation of life on Earth.

In human health, there are many attitudes that must suffer the wind of change, starting with seeing around us – not just looking! –  and recognize others, living beings and the environment. And changing practices, such as the inappropriate use of antibiotics in the community and also in the hospital, generating more resistant microbial strains and stimulating, in a vicious cycle, investment in research and financial resources, which could be directed towards more useful goals for human health .

The One Health concept raises the need for articulation between all those who can contribute to improve and, even more, prevent global health. Among health professionals, especially doctors, in the community and in hospitals, they cannot limit themselves to treating “the disease”. They have to see the patient as a whole, in which environment he lives, what he eats, what exercise he does, how he integrates into the family and society. It is necessary to understand the causes that led to the disease: was it related to food, to the water he drinks or drank, to the animals he comes into contact with, to the environment in which he develops his work, or to that trip to the ends of the world he dreamed of so much?

As a doctor for 45 years, I am in a privileged position to say: we cannot continue like this my dear colleagues! We have to be more global, more integrative and always try to understand what may be behind the disease that we diagnose and treat so well. That's not enough. For the sake of One Health, we must think and act more deeply and, above all, be interconnected with all the other actors in the HEALTH dimension. Only then will we have tomorrow for our descendants.

Carlos Vasconcelos, Specialist in Internal Medicine e Professor Catedrático convidado do ICBAS

Promoting animal and human health

Animal health has acquired an unparalleled importance. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the interconnection between human health, animal health, the environment and food safety was well evidenced.

More forgotten, however, is another daily struggle, albeit much more silent: antibiotic resistance. This is a challenge of the utmost importance to achieve the goals listed in the European Action Plan for “One Health” and in the from Farm to Fork Strategy, which led, from the beginning of this year, to the application of new rules to promote the animal health and combating antimicrobial resistance.

Limiting the use of antibiotics to situations of extreme need is a priority, and the European Union has set a target of halving it by 2030. This commitment has already started in animal production, including aquaculture, where the selection of more robust strains, as well as the adoption of better cultivation practices, including vaccination, better hygiene and adaptation of environmental conditions to the production of each species, are already a current practice. Effective strategies for disease prevention have also been developed, through the new concept of precision nutrition, where diets are rigorously and personalized to meet the nutritional requirements of each animal.

Currently, cutting-edge technologies are used (sensors, information technologies, artificial intelligence) capable of monitoring in real time the physiological state of the animal, allowing the integration of a large volume of data and converting them into fast and assertive decision-making that anticipate scenarios. The result of these good practices translates into increased production efficiency and animal welfare, minimizing the impact on the environment. On the other hand, the total control of the value chain of the agri-food sector makes it possible to guarantee the traceability of products and the food safety of the consumer.

Animal production has increasingly focused on the use of sustainable and functional diets with two objectives. On the one hand, the inclusion of supplements that offer benefits to the animal's health, which allows it to increase its resistance to challenging environmental conditions (more extreme temperatures, less water availability and more acidic waters). On the other hand, they can be deposited in muscle and/or milk, and increase the nutritional value of these products.

Consumers' concerns about the nutritional value of food are increasing. The search for products with specific claims such as “source of selenium” or “rich in omega-3” is a global trend, to which animal production has, through new formulas, aimed at different age groups (children and elderly), or health conditions.

Therefore, foods rich in omega-3, iodine and selenium, iron and other minerals can be found today, which, unlike the inorganic solutions available in pharmacies, are easily assimilated, and therefore better used by our body and healthier. Food supplements in animal production will thus be a growing trend, which will help to mitigate the challenges associated with climate change and contribute to the production of healthy and safe food.

Finally, I would like to mention the impact of our food choices on the environment. Portugal is a country with a deficit in the production of most of the agricultural products it consumes, including meat, fruits, cereals (except rice), pulses and oilseeds. In other words, we have to import these products. Transport remains a significant source of air pollution, harming the environment and human health. Choosing local and sustainable products should be an individual responsibility and a contribution to a healthier planet.

Luísa M.P. Valente, Associate Professor at ICBAS

The Environment in the One Health concept

The Biosphere is the thin layer of our Planet where life has existed for 4 billion years. Since then, living beings have experienced periods of strong development, interspersed with others of overwhelming extinctions. The Homo sapiens sapiens cames to shuffle natural processes, the result of the enormous pressure exerted on the environment, now on a global scale. From a balanced survival in the past, we moved to a direct intervention, where different interests prevail, including economic ones, as the anthropocentric vision of the Planet was consolidated.

The idea of sustainable development emerged in 1987, by the hand of the United Nations, in view of the escalation of human action on the environment. Today, more than a piece of rhetoric, it is imperative to satisfy the present needs of a changing world, without jeopardizing the legacy and needs of future generations.

Nowadays, we have the perception that everything is interconnected. If, on the one hand, our activity affects the Environment, it continues to affect Man, since the degradation of the Biosphere has, inexorably, dramatic effects on human, animal and plant health.

This vision is clearly expressed in the One Health concept, in which the health of the Environment is one of the key components and, increasingly, placed on the agenda.

Adriano A. Bordalo e Sá, Director of the Department of Population Studies at ICBAS

From everything we know so far, and which goes far beyond conspiracy theories, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, originated in an animal. World Health Organization experts dispatched to Wuhan, China, concluded that the most likely scenario is a zoological origin, via an intermediate host, be it a bat or another animal that has not yet been identified. Which showed how essential it is to monitor viruses in animals in order to avoid contagion to humans. It is the so-called integrated approach to health that links the environment, animals and man and that the 'Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar', in Porto, is already doing.

See the full report at RTP website.

Source: RTP Notícias

The contribution of universities to the awareness of antimicrobial resistance

From the 18th to the 24th of November, various initiatives were held at the Portuguese General Directorate of Food and Veterinary (DGAV) to mark the World Week for Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness.

Considering the topic chosen this year "Spread Awareness, Stop Resistance", DGAV collected some testimonies on video, from different personalities and professionals representing different perspectives on the impact of Antimicrobial Resistance on Public Health, Animal Health and the environment.

Professor João Niza Ribeiro, from the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS), of the University of Porto, highlights, in this video, the contribution of Universities to the awareness of resistance to antimicrobials and to the application of good practices for the responsible use of antimicrobials, through the training of professionals in the area of animal production, as well as through collaboration with the authorities to develop and improve systems that allow the agricultural sectors to respond to the great challenge of reducing the use of these drugs.

Source: DGAV – Direção Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária

A diverse panel of experts from human, animal and environmental health got together, last November 3rd (International One Health Day), to discuss the One Health approach. The stage was the “1st Porto One Health Day”, organized by the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS) of the University of Porto in collaboration with different research units of the city (CECA, CIIMAR, CIBIO-InBIO, CI-IPOP, FCUP, ISPUP, i3S, REQUIMTE, UMIB).

The One Health approach recognizes the connection between people, animals, plants and the environment, and aims to provide a scientific and technical response that makes it possible to prevent, detect, contain, eliminate and respond to public health threats caused by agents and events hazardous to human and animal health.

Foi sob esta perspetiva que se focaram as nove sessões do “1st Porto One Health Day”, versando sobre vários temas que concentram em si uma visão holística da saúde: segurança alimentar, alterações climáticas, interação entre humanos e animais, resistência a antibióticos, impacto dos oceanos na saúde humana, impacto da pandemia nos doentes com cancro, HIV e doenças emergentes.

This was a truly transdisciplinary meeting where an increasingly current issue was discussed. The objective of the organizing committee was fulfilled: "to bring together the main Research Units of Porto to discuss health problems together from the One Health perspective, with the purpose of identifying real solutions and potential partnerships".

One Health or the “way” to “restore our planet”

The event was attended by the co-founder of the One Health Initiative, the American Laura H. Kahn. “One Health analysis of food safety and security, antimicrobial Resistance, and Climate Change in the 21st Century” was the title of the presentation which demonstrated the transversality and applicability of this concept.

“We urgently need to restore our planet. The One Health concept, which recognizes that life on Earth is interconnected, must be the way. For this, we must educate the new generations. One Health must be the basis not only for scientific research, but also for the development of policies, education and literacy”, highlighted the physician and researcher in health policies.

The director of ICBAS, Henrique Cyrne Carvalho, closed the event with the certainty that “the second step of this long journey that we are now starting will be the realization of consensus reflections on the discussed topics, which will allow us to reach decision makers, who are still unaware of the importance of the alert that we are now evoking.”

“Health deserves our extreme care, because it is the genesis of balance and sustainability. We are not going to stop as long as we feel that, albeit tenuously, we are working to find that balance”, concluded the director.

A local but international event

The event was hybrid, with all the presentations being performed in person and also broadcast online. The conference was recognized and shared by the international initiative One Health Day, receiving more than 300 registrations online. In these entries, a total of 83 institutions were represented, of which 69 Portuguese and 17 foreign. The event had participants from Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Spain, United States, Ethiopia, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Norway, United Kingdom and Sweden, which reinforces the interest, scope and relevance of the One Health concept at an international level.

Text: Begoña Pérez Cabezas (Adapted from ‘Notícias da Universidade do Porto’)

A consortium of national entities together in the “OmegaPeixe” project to produce turbot and sea bass, two of the most relevant species in southern Europe, in an optimized and environmentally sustainable way and for increasing the consumption of omega-3s.

“This is the first time that the national production of fish enriched with omega-3s has been invested. The goal is threefold: to respond to the high demand for foods rich in this nutrient, with proven benefits for human health, including a strong anti-inflammatory action to prevent cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and depressive states; to respect animal welfare and the environment and, at the same time, to encourage sustainable aquaculture made in Potugal”, says Renata Serradeiro, CEO of Acuinova

"Our goal is to provide the consumer with a differentiated fish, with high nutritional value, in particular with a high content of long-chain omega-3s (EPA and DHA), produced sustainably using a careful selection of ingredients at an affordable price”, said the same source.

“One of the objectives of the project is to make high quality fish available to consumers, without significantly increasing the sale price” explains Helena Abreu, founder and General Director of ALGAplus, the consortium includes the company ALGAplus, operating in the area of integrated aquaculture, which will be responsible for the production of organic sea bass.

In addition to Acuinova and ALGAplus, the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS), from the University of Porto (UP), with international competences in Aquaculture, and the Collaborative Laboratory for the Blue Bioeconomy (CoLAB B2E), one of the 26 national collaborative laboratories created by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, participate in the project. To carry out the project, the consortium has the support of Riasearch and Sparos, companies specialized in Research and Development in aquaculture.

“National and European aquaculture is an exemplary response when it comes to food safety, quality, freshness, animal welfare and legislation. It should be noted that the use of hormones and antibiotics to promote animal growth has been banned in the EU for two decades, and has never been current practice in European aquaculture”, reinforces Elisabete Matos, Technical-Scientific Coordinator of CoLAB B2E.

For Elisabete Matos, “the future is about finding solutions adapted to the environment, animals, and market demand and needs: a transversal sustainability”, she predicts.

ICBAS will be responsible for evaluating the impact of finishing diets, directed to the phase prior to fishing, on the nutritional profile of each species under study. “These diets will be optimized for each of the species, using mathematical models and the intelligent FEEDNETICS program, developed in Portugal in a previous R&D project by Sparos, to select the ingredients with the greatest functional potential and economic sustainability. In the end, specific feeding protocols will be proposed for turbot and sea bass”, says researcher Luísa Valente.

Currently, the economy of the sea is growing at twice the rate of the national economy. According to the Sea Satellite Account, developed by the Directorate-General for Maritime Policies and by INE, between 2016 and 2018 the blue sector rose 18.5% in Gross Value Added (GVA) and 8.3% in employment. The national economy grew 9.6% in GVA and 3.4% in employment.

The fishing, aquaculture, processing, and respective marketing sector is responsible for 25.1% of this GVA and for the creation of more than 60 thousand jobs. It is estimated that, in 2018, the direct and indirect impact of the economy of the sea on the national economy will have translated into 5.4% of the GVA and 5.1% of the Gross Domestic Product. All this economic impact is achieved with very reduced environmental impacts when compared to other economic activities.

The “OmegaPeixe” project will have a total investment of around one million euros, of which almost 666,000 euros will be supported by Portugal 2020 and by the European Structural and Investment Funds of the European Union, through the Research and Development Incentive System Technological. The works will take place over two and a half years.

Fonte: SAPO Lifestyle

Local authorities do not accept bad results. 

The University of Porto claims that the river beaches of Gaia and Gondomar do not meet water quality parameters. Local authorities, however, argue that the analyzes say the opposite. 

Bathers seem to feel a kind of false security on a beach that is equipped and supervised, but that is not even considered by the Portuguese Environment Agency as a river beach due to the history of poor results in water quality.

Source: SIC Notícias

Researchers of ICBAS, in Porto, have detected pathogenic bacteria, some even resistant to antibiotics, in the waters of bathing beaches in the North of the country, which they believe are driven by climate change.

In a publication on the website of the University of Porto, the ICBAS communication office states that the results were obtained within the scope of the BeachSafe project, which studies the presence of microbial agents in 10 beaches in the North of Portugal: Afife, Ofir, Póvoa do Varzim, Árvore, Matosinhos, Salgueiros, Aguda, Paramos, Cortegaça e São Jacinto.

According to ICBAS, climate change, namely the increase in temperature, variations in salinity and concentration of particles in the water, "seem to be responsible" for the spread of these bacteria, which represent "an unaccounted risk for public health", given that the official assessment is based on faecal indicators.

"The number of infections related to bathing water throughout the world, including in Europe, has been growing in recent years", says the Institute of the University of Porto, adding that most cases are associated with "indigenous bacteria" and “enteric viruses”.

“Most of the cases are associated with autochthonous bacteria that find favorable conditions to spread,due to climate change, or enteric viruses, as a result of the discharge of raw or poorly treated wastewater”, explains ICBAS.

The BeachSafe project, led by researchers from the ICBAS Laboratory of Hydrobiology and Ecology, is co-financed by the COMPETE2020 program, Portugal 2020, by the European Union through the FEDER and by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

Source: Jornal de Notícias
Photography: Paulo Novais (Lusa)

Most infectious diseases are of animal origin. Pathogens go around the world in a human body very quickly. The debate is open. What do we eat? How do we treat ecosystems and wild reserves? How to understand that the health of animals is the health of humans? Where does globalization lead us?

It's a complex matter with many angles. But with one certainty: almost 70% of the infectious diseases that have hit man in recent decades are of animal origin. And there will be an estimated 1.7 million viruses to be discovered in wildlife. The problem won't be so much what's inside the animals. The question is what humanity does or does not do since disease is and always will be a threat. Science studies and produces knowledge. Health makes the guts heart to deal with what comes to hand. The veterinarian controls and monitors. Political power decides.

Realities and behaviors come back to the discussion. Animals infect men. Animals are closer to each other. Humans are closer to animals through deforestation. Wild animals have less space and seek new destinations and ways to survive. Viruses take advantage of human vulnerabilities. Natural habitats have been attacked. An unbalanced food system affects health. Agricultural land climbs land. Livestock production continues to grow. In China, the wildlife business involves 12 million people and €65 billion a year. The world population has doubled and lives concentrated in cities. The global world is a highway traveling at the speed of light.

The dice are posted. A pathogen that has passed from an animal to a human travels many kilometers in a few hours. And the World is, at this moment, turned inside out. The most recent coronavirus, the seventh, was reportedly transmitted by a species of bat at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. It is still unclear whether, in the current pandemic, there was a pangolin, a small wild mammal, as an intermediary in the mutation of an unknown virus and its transmission to the human species. It is known, however, that the coronavirus does not need an animal to survive.

Examples abound. In 2002, the SARS coronavirus was identified as the cause of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Ten years later, MERS-CoV was blamed for the Middle East respiratory syndrome. In both cases, the likely original host was a bat. And it's a bat that is also pointed out as the Ebola's natural reservoir. Bird flu, caused by a highly aggressive strain of a virus, comes from infected birds, alive or dead. The influenza virus has moved from birds to pigs and to humans. A mouse living in Africa spread Lassa fever across Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and even flew to the United States and the United Kingdom. Malaria is an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease, is also transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. Mad cow disease, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, attacks domestic cattle and is transmissible to humans. HIV migrated to humans and originated in wild chimpanzees.

Animals have transmitted diseases to humans since the beginning. Point. Bats, primates and rodents are referred to as the wild animals that transmit the most viruses to mankind. And viruses have an extraordinary adaptability, waiting for an opportunity to enter human cells and wreak havoc. There have always been risks, there will always be risks, the impact is that it can be milder or more violent on human health. The current pandemic has put the world at home and has already killed nearly 200,000 people.

How do viruses, bacteria and parasites get out of animals and infect man? In many ways. “By contact, by inhalation, by food, among other possibilities”, answers Manuel Vilanova, immunologist, professor at ICBAS – Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, University of Porto. Nobody has the gift of guessing when a virus leaves an animal, how it mutates, when and how it will attack man. "We cannot predict, we can react, and the problem has to be tackled on several fronts, pharmacological, immunological, and all of this takes time." In any case, the medical and scientific community worldwide has never been so focused and united in trying to find a solution to the current pandemic.

Killing animals is not even considered. "It is necessary to be careful how animal products are made available and how hygiene and food safety rules are organized." One thing is certain: the health of animals affects the health of humans. "No doubt. It is a lesson that everyone should never forget and that has now been put in a very clear way”, emphasizes Manuel Vilanova.

The percentage came from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the warning that one cannot continue idly: about 70% of the new diseases that infect man have animal origin. The report is from 2013, it's the latest in the matter, and it's still up to date. The United Nations food agency then called for an integrated, global intervention to manage health threats. Trying to anticipate rather than react.

Human health, animal health and ecosystem health cannot be seen separately. It is necessary to reflect health together and without borders, to structure ideas, identify problems, make recommendations, create an action plan, commit and hold political power accountable. “There must be respect for knowledge and science”, says Henrique Cyrne de Carvalho, director of ICBAS, doctorate in Medicine, Portuguese representative at One Health – World Health Organization, a European group working on the fusion of human and veterinary health organizations, that moves in this axis of human, animal, environmental health. The intervention, in his opinion, must be carried out upstream as much as possible and the information produced consistently and without any doubts must be on the decision-maker's table. It cannot be otherwise. “We are frankly exposed to infections that decimate populations in frightening numbers, be it bacteria, viruses, parasites,” he notes. “And we must have the humility to recognize that the world is not prepared for situations of this nature”, he adds.

The world is global, extremely urbanized, the countryside is a distant place, wildlife is a remote image. João Niza Ribeiro, veterinarian, doctorate in Veterinary Sciences, professor at ICBAS, member of One Health, puts all these points in the conversation. “What happens is that highly infectious diseases have globalized, become widespread. This type of situation is linked to urbanization.” Cities full of people, unusual population densities. People get infected, they infect others, and then you realize what's happening. Meanwhile, he says, "pathogens make their way."

Didier Cabanes, PhD in Molecular Biology, leader of the research group in Molecular Microbiology at i3S – Institute for Research and Innovation in Health of the University of Porto, has opinions, has no solutions. “What is happening is the result of our way of living 50 years ago. We are always reducing the space reserved for wild animals and many of these viruses, which are not known, come from wild animals.” The closer they are, the more exposed. And diseases have their particularities, their originalities. “Viruses have an enormous capacity to modify the genome in order to adapt, they find a way to infect humans, and this is nothing new”, he points out. The point is that history repeats itself over and over and sometimes leaves the World to its knees.

What arrives at the table is extremely important. Francisco Sarmento, former FAO representative in Portugal, with 30 years of international experience in food systems, brings together several elements. “The pandemic most likely comes from food pandemonium. The way we industrialized agriculture and globalized food in recent decades means that we are killing the planet and, consequently, ourselves. We destroy biodiversity and eliminate protective organisms to produce more calories and not more nutrients”, he stresses. Those most exposed to viruses that "jump" from animals, which cause pandemics, generally end up being the ones that carry the most a history of diseases and complications. “We are more vulnerable to overweight, obesity, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, among other pathologies that are becoming chronic. And we are going to die more and more quickly from a set of other diseases if we don't change the food system and its relationship with ecosystems. It changes with political will, social participation and science. The biggest enemy, as always, is ignorance.”

The movement of animals and people also explains the transmission of diseases. The number of travelers per year is in the order of billions. “The models for moving animals for consumption are highly regulated in Europe and the United States, much more than the movement of people is regulated”, observes Henrique Cyrne de Carvalho. The mobility of animals is a movement that is more organized and easier to control. The human one is not designed to prevent exposure to pathogens. “This is an enormously complex model that involves non-controllable variables”, comments the director of ICBAS.

Animal health is also human health and, in any case, the veterinary structures have tight control mechanisms for the surveillance and monitoring of animals for human consumption, from the feed they eat to commercialization in markets. “We cannot predict everything, we have structures capable of preventing and with the capacity to react”, guarantees João Niza Ribeiro. The issue is the means available, he points out, noting that the annual budget of the largest hospitals in the country is four to five times greater than the entire veterinary structure in the country.

Men, animals, ecosystems. Everything is articulated in this triangle where each vertex has the utmost importance. “We cannot put nature in a little glass box. We have to respect nature”, says João Niza Ribeiro. Didier Cabanes has no doubts. "This problem will happen more often and nobody really prepared, the health systems were not prepared." Changing the way of life, ways of consuming, giving more space to wildlife? It's all open. “We have to prepare for the next time because it will happen. We cannot stop the economy for two years. That's not possible." Predicting is an impossibility, reacting is not enough, it is then necessary to define plans and articulate strategies to protect health. Of animals and humans.

Source: Notícias Magazine
Text: Sara Dias Oliveira