COHEART organized Stakeholders meeting with the support from Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of United Nations was held at Kochi from Sept. 26-27 to implement One Health Governance in Kerala for combating emerging public health threats. 

Inauguration: Dr. Sadanandan P.K, Additional Director of AHD inaugurated the program and enlightened the benefit for implementing One Health governance in the state. This interface meet is the stepping stone for implementing One Health governance in Kerala said Dr. Kuttappan N.K., District Medical Officer (Ernakulam).  Dr. Rajesh Dubey Operations officer at FAO released the One Health Governance framework position paper for Kerala. Dr. Joseph Mathew, Registrar, Veterinary University, Dr. Rajesh Bhatia, FAO Consultant, Dr. H.R. Khanna, Assistant Commissioner, Department of animal husbandry dairying and fisheries, Dr. M. K. Prasad, Chief Disease Investigation Officer, Dr. E. K. Easwaran, Chief forest veterinary officer, Dr. Mohandas A. C, District Animal Husbandry Officer, Calicut and Dr. Sukumaran, State epidemiologist of Directorate of Health Service spoke on this occasion.

Technical sessions: The first session was handled by an international expert on Nipah virus, Dr. Jonathan Epstein who is Vice President for EcoHealth Alliance. He highlighted how One Health was key for the success of controlling Nipah virus due to its implementation at federal level. This was followed by a session from Dr. Rajesh Bhatia on Status of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) in India and the need to contain AMR in coming years by One Health approach. Detail presentation of how did Kerala overcome the adversities of Nipah, KFD, Avian Influenza etc using One Health approach was discussed by Dr. Sukumaran A, State Epidemiologist

Group Discussion:  A group discussion led by Dr. C. Latha, Dr. A Sukumaran and Dr. M. K. Prasad drafted the framework recommendations. Group discussion was held in world café style on 5 themes viz., Theme 1 One Health Governance- To develop governance structure in Kerala, Theme 2: One Health Surveillance Network- To suggest the process for operationalizing Kerala Model One Health disease surveillance network, Theme 3: One Health Emergency/outbreak response- To suggest the process for operationalizing Kerala Model One Health Emergency/outbreak response, Theme 4: One Health Research and laboratory networking- laboratory e-networking and collaborative research  and Theme 5: One Health Capacity building.

Based on the discussion, it was proposed to form a One Health Steering Committee by including members from Animal Health, Human Health and Environmental health sectors. The Key domains for One health approach in Kerala was broadly categorized as (A) One Health Core areas and (B) One Health Allied areas. Core One Health areas included Antimicrobial resistance, Zoonotic diseases, Emerging Infectious Disease, Food Borne Infections and Allied One Health areas included Environmental hazards, Wild life conservation and disease management, Food Safety, pollution and waste management and disaster management. It was further recommended to develop Kerala state action plans for major health threats using One Health approach and for this Kerala State OH Action Plan on AMR developed by Kerala government can be taken as example model.

The program was organized by Centre for One Health (COHEART) of Veterinary University, Kerala in association with Directorate of Health Services and State Institute of Animal Disease of Animal Husbandry under the support of FAO of United Nation. A total of 70 stakeholders representing public health institutes, drug controller authority, Kerala University of health science, ICAR institutes, Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying and Fisheries (India), disaster management, KSCSTE, CUSAT, Sree chitra institute etc. participated in this meet.