Whether living in urban or ruralenvironments, humans tend to perceive the world around themas being shaped by culture and industry more than by naturalhistory. Humans, however, are part of a biological continuumthat covers all living species. Charles Darwin's 200thbirthday in 2009 could serve to remind us of this. Allanimals, including humans but also plants, fungi, andbacteria, share the same basic biochemical principles ofmetabolism, reproduction, and development. Most pathogenscan infect more than one host species, including humans. In1964, veterinary epidemiologist Calvin Schwabe coined theterm "one medicine" to capture theinterrelatedness between animal and human health, and themedical realities of preventing and controlling zoonoticdiseases or "zoonoses" -diseases that arecommunicable between animals and humans. One medicinesignaled the recognition of the risks that zoonotic diseasespose to people, their food supplies, and their economies.Given the interrelatedness of human, animal, and ecosystemhealth, the rationale for some form of coordinated policyand action among agencies responsible for public health,medical science, and veterinary services is quite intuitive.Later, the term "one health" came into use, andlater still, the broader concept of "one world onehealth," which is today used to represent theinextricable links among human and animal health and thehealth of the ecosystems they inhabit.
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