The health and agriculture ministers assured commitment to strengthen ‘one health’ approach in Bhutan and in the region at the South Asia regional ‘one health’ symposium that ended yesterday in Paro. “Our government assures full support for the ‘one health’ concept, and ensures the sustainability of the work that has been done so far to bring it to this level,” health minister Tandin Wangchuk said. The agriculture minister, Yeshey Dorji, said, since the region largely practised subsistence farming, and with limited resources, tackling the emerging diseases in isolation could be difficult and costly. “A collaborated effort at all levels is necessary,” he said, adding the ‘one health’ approach should be the core strategic tool for south Asian countries to tackle emerging and re-emerging diseases. He said the increasing interactions between humans, animals and eco-system led to the increase in emergence of new diseases in human and animals. The representatives from seven SAARC countries resolved to collaborate, and share information on outbreak of zoonoses, diseases that transmit from animals to humans, for an effective regional ‘one health’ approach. These were some of the resolutions, which over 120 animal and human health experts from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka drew after a five-day symposium at the Zhiwa Ling resort. However, inadequate or lack of communication between public and animal health organisations, and among the countries, had hampered a successful approach until today. The experts thus resolved to develop a strategic regional agenda for research on zoonotic diseases, recognising the importance of trans-boundary diseases. For countries to maintain their efforts, they decided to institutionalise the ‘one health’ approach. “So, even if the some officials leave the organisations, the ministries could still continue the works,” a representative said. Among diseases that have emerged in the past 30 years, more than 70 percent of them were zoonotic diseases, and about 61 percent of communicable diseases were zoonotic. This, the agriculture minister said, has great potential for the animal health sectors to work with other sectors in controlling these diseases. ‘One health’ approach, a collaborated effort of sectors to prevent risks and mitigation of effects of crises originating at the interface between humans, animals and their various environments recognises effective communication and sharing of information between human and animal health sectors as key to detecting and controlling the emergence or re-emergence of zoonosis. Increasing the capacity of the sectors important for the control of zoonosis, strengthening joint surveillance systems within and between countries that share borders, and leveraging the existing one-health resources, were some among the nine resolutions made. A one health hub, with members from both livestock and public health sectors, is established in each of the seven countries and they would now share information as well as research over Hubnet, a website in which all of the hubs have their links. The symposium was organised by Massey University, New Zealand, department of livestock and public health from Bhutan under the European Union funding. It marked the end of a four-year South Asia training program in human and animal health epidemiology.