The role of veterinary medicine in public health

World Health Day is celebrated every year on April 7, remembering the founding date of the World Health Organization (WHO), an organization that was born in 1948 with the mission of promoting health and well-being especially in the most vulnerable. This day is a good time to reflect on what has been and is the role of Veterinary Medicine in public health, which is precisely the motto for this year of the WHO: “75 years improving public health”.
Historically, Veterinary Medicine has been at the service of human health. Although the objective of the work of veterinarians is the recovery of animal health, the efforts and resources mobilized are directly related to the benefit of people, avoiding the spread of diseases to humans or zoonoses and promoting good animal management practices to reduce foodborne diseases. 
Other benefits for people are economic, as is the case of animals used for food; the promotion of human health, as is the case with animals used in biomedical research; the affective, thinking of pets; or recreational, such as animals used in sports. However, in recent decades, the line between human and animal benefit is increasingly blurred, due to the close interaction between the two. 
Another important edge to consider is the interaction with the environment, because it has been proven that human impact on the environment increases the probability of contagion of diseases and, conversely, people can promote diseases in animals. This has led to a paradigm shift in which rather than talking about “Health”, we speak of “One Health”, understanding that health is the result of an interrelationship between humans-animals-environment. 
Public health, understood as “health for all”, expands its boundaries in this context and includes animal health. And that is where veterinarians play a fundamental role. If we consider that health goes beyond physical health, and include mental health, we can see the relevance of Veterinary Medicine in improving the quality of life, by caring for pets and wild animals in their natural environment.
In the frontier of human-animal-environmental health, Veterinary Medicine has a lot to say and plays a decisive role, ensuring the health of the ecosystem. However, according to current regulations, veterinarians are not considered health professionals in Chile. 
As a Veterinary Medical Association, since 2017 we persist with the efforts to reincorporate Veterinary Medicine into the Sanitary Code and thus veterinarians are considered health professionals. We have supported bills that allow reinstatement and are constantly showing the contribution of this profession to public health. 
Health for All, which is this year’s message for World Health Day, is also the motto that identifies the veterinarians of Chile, who work every day for One Health.

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Original source in Spanish