One Health

Dr. Erica Fuhrmeister is Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She received her BS in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her MS and PhD in environmental engineering from University of California, Berkeley.

Dr.

Dr. Julianne Meisner is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and an Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Global Health. A veterinarian with a PhD in Epidemiology, Dr. Meisner’s research interests focus on the intersection of human, animal and environmental health. 

Sally Thompson-Iritani, DVM/PhD, CPIA, has worked in the animal welfare, compliance and research field for over 30 years. She feels strongly that recognizing the important role of our animal caregivers and the relationship that we form with the animals in our care is essential for the well-being of both the animals and the people that interact with laboratory animals.

Marguerite Pappaioanou, DVM, MPVM, PhD, is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she contributes to the research, teaching, and outreach programs of the Center for One Health Research.

Deputy Director for the USAID funded Discovery & Exploration of Emerging Pathogens - Viral Zoonoses (DEEP VZN), a five-year project that aims to strengthen global capacity to detect and understand the risks of viral spillover from wildlife to humans that could cause another pandemic. 

The general area of my teaching and research involves the applied aspects of environmental health practice, i.e., how the principles and concepts of environmental health are actually practiced in the field, especially by local, state, tribal and federal agencies.

Dr. Roberts' research interests include identification of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] and vancomycin resistant enterococci [VRE] in environmental samples, antibiotic resistance using a One Health approach. Dr. Roberts is interested in how antibiotic resistance genes and resistant bacteria move between the environment, humans and animals.

Dr. Peter Rabinowitz is Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Director of the UW Center for One Health Research.

Dr. Elaine Faustman is a toxicologist and Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and Director of the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication (IRARC).

Antimicrobial resistance in bacteria has been a prominent topic of concern for the public health sector in the 21st century. While there are many factors that contribute to increasing AMR in the human population, antimicrobial use in companion animal and large animal veterinary practices is of particular interest due to the One Health paradigm.

The One Health approach, which assesses the interconnectedness of animal, human, and environmental health, fails to include and amplify Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous scientists.

U.S. meat producers continue to face challenges with how to improve production sustainability, while balancing environmental and animal wellbeing decisions. The industry is driven by changing consumer preferences and market trends that require the need for continued transformations towards a sustainable production practice.

I led a project with the Woodland Park Zoo’s Senior Conservation Scientist, Dr. Lisa Dabek, and Director of the UW Center for One Health Research, Dr. Peter Rabinowitz.

The IPC Plan is used to implement preventative measures to prioritize the health and well-being of all employees and animals on farms.

The complex interplay between routine antibiotic use and zoonotic pathogen presence makes livestock farming environments unique nexuses for the potential emergence of zoonotic diseases and/or antibiotic resistant bacteria and their resistance genes.

There is extensive research about the benefits of the human-animal bond on different health outcomes through a variety of animal assisted interventions. A population with strong connection to their companion animals, and well-documented health disparities is youth and young adults experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.

Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 provides an approach for assessing theinfection burden across a sewer service area. For these data to be useful for public health, measurement variability in relation to normalization methods need to be established.

Background: Ozone is a popular water sterilization agent utilized in marine mammal husbandry to maintain the pool water in the animal enclosures. The health hazards posed by ozone are well understood, but its role as an occupational hazard, especially in marine mammal husbandry, is understudied and not well characterized.

Introduction: Infection control is important in the veterinary care setting due to the risk of zoonotic illness1–4, however research has consistently shown that veterinary workers tend to underestimate their risk and have lower rates of proper personal protective equipment (PPE) use5–9.

Exposure to zoonotic disease is a significant occupational risk in veterinary medicine. In this study, we characterized PPE use, injury frequency, and Bartonella seroreactivity in Washington State veterinary workers.

Wildlife farms are important interfaces where zoonoses can occur due to frequent and direct contact which farmers have with their animals. We hypothesized that raising wildlife species adversely affected animal farmers’ health because of the increased risk of contracting zoonotic disease, and that wearing PPE would reduce the likelihood of that outcome.

Antimicrobial resistant bacteria (ARB) can be shared between humans and animals through a common environment. The surveillance of ARB in the environment can inform us about contamination of shared ecosystems, like the Salish Sea, and how that contamination affects both the animals that rely on the ecosystem and humans who also live within it.

Compassion fatigue has been described in various “caring professions” across the human medical field. Recently, compassion fatigue has been identified as a concern in animal care professions, specifically veterinary medicine.

Background: Many studies have linked childhood farm exposures to a protective effect against allergy and asthma. Although continued exposure in adulthood may maintain this effect, little work has been done looking specifically at adult occupational exposures.

No study has been undertaken in Washington state to determine if there is an association between agricultural fairs and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections, despite a fair-associated outbreak in 2015 that sickened 60 people.