A One Health approach to an epidemiological and ecological understanding of Rift Valley fever virus

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an arbovirus that frequently occurs as an outbreak precipitated by environmental conditions ideal for vector emergence and causes disease in domestic and wild ruminants as well as people.... [ view full abstract ]

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an arbovirus that frequently occurs as an outbreak precipitated by environmental conditions ideal for vector emergence and causes disease in domestic and wild ruminants as well as people. These attributes make RVFV an ideal system to demonstrate the benefits of a One Health Approach.
To develop and implement a One Health disease program to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness, personnel efficiency and improved scientific power to support conclusions and recommendations.
A multidisciplinary team of experts was established to investigate RVFV dynamics. A framework to facilitate the sharing of expertise and results was developed. Metrics measuring project costs and personnel efficiency were developed and used to estimate cost-savings for a One Health project compared to the estimated cost of a siloed approach. Further metrics to evaluate the impact of research published by the project are being developed.
Over 1.5 years there has already been a noticeable cost-savings, demonstrated by an assessment of project-related transportation for the vegetation, soil science, and human, wildlife and domestic animal epidemiological teams. The One Health approach saved 41% in transportation-related costs ($12,259 vs. estimated $20,800). Likewise the approach led to a 31% reduction in the number of trips requiring transportation.
One Health approaches are often touted as being more efficient than traditional siloed approaches; however, few analyses have been conducted to demonstrate actual cost-savings of One Health Programs. Due to the complex ecological system of RVFV, quantitative efficiency-data can be analyzed to evaluate and support One Health approaches.