Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s One Health Initiative:
Creating a Veterinary Public Health Community of Practice
Summer 2012
OBJECTIVE:
Development and implementation of a pilot One Health program aimed at creating a
network of veterinarians and veterinary technicians engaged in primary care practice with
an interest in public health. The initial phase of this program, started in May of 2011,
consisted of a number of smaller pilot projects within local public health units (PHUs) that
indicated an interest in this initiative (Grey-Bruce, Hamilton, Niagara, Durham and York
Region). The project will continue this year and in addition to these regions, we will be engaging
primary care veterinarians within Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph region as well.
The network would function at two proposed levels:
1) Veterinary Community of Practice: network of local veterinarians and
veterinary technicians connected to public health veterinarians at the
provincial level
2) One Health Community of Practice: local veterinarians and veterinary
technicians partnered with local public health units (PHUs)
Specific goals of each level:
(1) For the Veterinary Community of Practice (local veterinarians and vet techs
working with provincial public health veterinarians):
• Establishing a network of geographically and species representative
community veterinarians and veterinary technicians with the provincial
public health veterinarian at the ministry and with each other
• Identifying future opportunities and resources, partnerships necessary to
integrate local veterinarians and veterinary technicians in public health
initiatives
• Identifying opportunities to develop, train, and implement a sentinel
surveillance program for established and (re-)emerging zoonotic diseases
at the community level
(2) For the One Health Community of Practice (local veterinarians and veterinary
technicians partnered with PHUs):
• Establishing inter-professional collaborations between representative local
veterinarians, veterinary technicians and local PHUs
• Developing integrated programs to promote public health in a coordinated
fashion
• Developing preventative procedures and incident response protocols for
zoonotic diseases in a coordinated fashion