For the 137th HGPI seminar, we hosted Professor Kohei Makita from Rakuno Gakuen University, which also serves as the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Collaborating Centre for Food Safety. Drawing upon various case studies and research from Japan and overseas, Professor Makita shared insights regarding current circumstances surrounding zoonotic diseases, challenges in veterinary medicine and veterinary epidemiology, and future prospects in those areas.

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• Humans and animals are inseparable and both can be infected by zoonotic diseases, so it is essential that we control such diseases by conducting surveillance and utilizing data based on the concept of One Health.
• Veterinary epidemiology contributes to scientific decision-making and effective disease control by visualizing outbreaks and risk factors for diseases that affect both humans and animals, by predicting future outbreaks, and by demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of control measures.
• One challenge facing the field of veterinary epidemiology is the development of human resources who can handle real-world duties and research. It will be necessary to train personnel with the specialized knowledge and capacity to apply veterinary epidemiology at central ministries and local governments at a level that meets global standards. We must introduce activities that make full use of the One Health perspective, expand veterinary epidemiology education, and strengthen public-private partnerships.

 

■ The impacts of animal infectious diseases on humans and the environment

There are close links among humans, animals, and the environment, and many infectious diseases impact both humans and animals. In fact, zoonotic diseases constitute 61% of infectious organisms pathogenic to people and 75% of emerging infectious diseases, and they include viruses that are particularly prone to causing pandemics such as H1N1 influenza, Ebola virus, and SARS-CoV-2. There are also zoonotic diseases that spread through multiple transmission routes and can cause severe infections, such as Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS).

There is also growing concern toward antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a “silent pandemic.” According to a projection from a 2014 report from England, without further action, the number of human deaths from AMR infections will exceed the number of cancer deaths by 2050. Since World War II, there has been increased use of antimicrobials around the world after research findings showed that such drugs can promote animal growth. This eventually led to the spread of AMR bacteria in the livestock industry, and there were reports of human deaths due to AMR bacteria in England in the 1960s. After the Swann Committee Report was submitted to the UK Parliament by a joint committee of the British government in 1969, the principle that important antimicrobials for humans should not be used for growth promotion in animals became an international standard.

Livestock epidemics have direct impacts on our daily lives, including on food and the economy. Examples from recent years that remain fresh in memory include an avian influenza outbreak that resulted in egg shortages due to mass deaths and culling of chickens, or when 290,000 heads of livestock were culled due to a foot-and-mouth disease epidemic. When a livestock epidemic occurs in Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) introduces containment measures, including at international points of entry. There is also financial compensation provided by the Government of Japan when animals are culled. However, there are often psychological burdens for the veterinarians and other people involved in culling animals or similar measures. It is urgent that we implement initiatives to ensure similar events do not occur again.

One Health is one of the most important approaches for achieving this. One Health is a concept in which the health of humans, animals, and the environment are perceived as interconnected and in which approaches based on interdisciplinary and public-private collaboration are essential. Under this concept, efforts to establish systems for sharing information on AMR bacteria are currently underway in Japan. They have included linking systems such as the Japanese Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (JVARM) and the Japan Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (JANIS) to generate the Nippon AMR One Health Report (NAOR). Expectations are high for such initiatives to be expanded in the future.

■ The roles of veterinary epidemiology

Veterinary epidemiology has a major role to fulfill in achieving One Health. In addition to visualizing human and animal diseases, veterinary epidemiology is a discipline that allows us to grasp outbreak conditions, risk factors, and modes of transmission; to make projections; to evaluate cost-effectiveness; and to formulate and verify disease control measures. One type of study in veterinary epidemiology is called descriptive epidemiology, which can be used to describe outbreak patterns using maps and numerical values. For example, when there was an outbreak of swine fever in Gifu Prefecture in 2018, infections initially spread among wild boars. In the following year, however, the outbreak spread to Saitama Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture. This rate of expansion greatly exceeded that of wild boars, which suggests that the disease may have been carried by people or vehicles. Theoretical epidemiology is another type of study in veterinary epidemiology that is used for quantitative analysis. For example, it has been used to verify the effectiveness of swine fever vaccines on swine farms. It can also be used to identify more economical options for producers by quantifying the effects of drugs, vaccines, and control measures for diseases like bovine mastitis or enzootic bovine leukosis. Such studies are sometimes referred to as livestock health economics, and they are utilized for estimating damage and compensation for outbreaks of highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza or other such situations.

Professionals in veterinary epidemiology are also working to address issues like AMR bacteria and rabies through efforts that include performing risk assessments based on global trends and perspectives from cultural anthropology to identify disease control methods that are acceptable in both cultural and economic terms. As for a specific example, in Vietnam, there are ongoing efforts for rabies that include analyzing socioeconomic factors for the gap between rabies vaccine subsidies and vaccination rates or rabies incidence, and conducting genetic analysis to determine if rabies endemic in wildlife is maintained by wild animals themselves or by dogs. In addition to epidemiology, socioeconomics and management (including regulatory science, stakeholder coordination, the packaging of measures, and logistics) are essential for these activities, and good communication and a shared vision based on epidemiological evidence are necessary to serve as the foundation.

■ Challenges in veterinary epidemiology and their solutions

Veterinary epidemiology is a crucial part of zoonotic and livestock disease control, and Japan needs more human resource development and enhancements to the educational environment in this field. While central ministries and agencies and independent administrative institutions have departments for veterinary epidemiology and high technical capacity, systems for employing veterinary epidemiologists at local governments, private organizations, and veterinary universities are somewhat restrictive. A stable infrastructure for the development of human resources has yet to be established. On top of this, only about half of universities offer practical education in veterinary epidemiology, so further improvements must be made if international standards for competency education (knowledge, attitudes, skills, and preparation) are to be met.

Even when epidemiological evidence is produced using veterinary epidemiology, zoonotic diseases often go unaddressed due to budget shortfalls at national governments (especially in developing countries) or insufficient collaboration between agencies responsible for human health and livestock health. Practical research aiming to address this issue is now being advanced through public-private partnerships. In Tanzania, a multidisciplinary team that includes doctors, veterinarians, and professionals from the education sector has introduced a participatory System Dynamics Model and VR education and is now co-designing measures to combat neglected zoonotic diseases (NZDs) like brucellosis and zoonotic tuberculosis together with community members. That project is also discussing disease control plans that are based on more diverse evidence gathered through investigations that incorporate socioeconomics and human ecology.

Efforts to reform education in Japan are currently underway. In addition to developing a core curriculum for veterinary epidemiology training or post-graduate training materials, efforts to train young professionals and form international networks are now advancing through international academic conferences and symposia. Expectations are high for each veterinary university and similar institution to become a regional center and strengthen activities for both education and the widespread adoption of these reforms, thus contributing to progress for veterinary epidemiology and more effective measures for controlling infectious disease.

 

[Event Overview]

• Speaker:
  Dr. Kohei Makita (Professor, Veterinary Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University)
• Date & Time: Wednesday, August 27, 2025, 18:00-19:15 JST
• Format: Online (Zoom webinar)
• Language: Japanese
• Participation Fee: Free
• Capacity: 500 participants

 

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■Profile:

Kohei Makita (Professor, Veterinary Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine & Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University / Director, WOAH Collaborating Centre for Food Safety, Rakuno Gakuen University)
Born in Fukui Prefecture in 1971. Graduated from School of Veterinary Medicine, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, in 1995. Completed doctoral program at the University of Edinburgh　Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution in 2009. Joined Saitama Prefectural Government in 1995. Dispatched from Saitama Prefectural Government to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer to the Kingdom of Nepal in 1998. Postdoctoral researcher at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Safe Food Fair Food project under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in 2008. Associate Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology at Rakuno Gakuen University in 2010. Director of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Collaborating Centre for Food Safety in 2014. Professor at Rakuno Gakuen University and Graduate School in 2018. Specializes in veterinary epidemiology. Engaged in epidemiological research on infectious and non-infectious diseases in animals, zoonotic diseases, and One Health research in Japan, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.

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