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This past week we heard from Mr. Larry Michael of the NC Department of Health and Human Services and Ms. Donna Wanucha or the regional office of the FDA. Their unexpectedly fascinating joint lecture was on the preparedness for NSSE—National Special Security Events, particularly food security.  Their thorough description of the planning for the available food and food preparation of the democratic national convention was unexpected in that I would have never considered food to be a vulnerable point for national events. Yet, when they described calling back all 2,000 lunch boxes for the security teams due to potentially “bad” chicken, it was not difficult to see how easily an entire event could be compromised by a little salmonella. While the talk opened my eyes to all the potential threats that well trained FDA and Public Health officials deal with daily, I found myself thinking of my pet cat, Chui. I have the choice to only frequent establishments with high safety grades and I trus...

This week, human-black bear interaction in residential areas between Ocala National Forest and Orlando, FL made headlines after a bear bit a woman in her garage.  This problem is not new.  Both bear and human populations in Florida have been growing since the 1970s, and poor housing development plans have fragmented the bears’ habitats as building expands ever closer to Ocala National Forest.  Conflicts have increased because of misunderstandings that could benefit from a One Health approach.  Experts on bear behavior from the Bear Management Program for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission advise maintaining a contiguous habitat for the bears and that bears are easily habituated to humans.  Public education campaigns to advise residents against approaching bears, feeding bears, or failing to secure garbage from bears should be reinforced. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140415-black-bear-florida-attack-habitat-wildlife-conservat...

On April 1, the One Health Intellectual Exchange’s session consisted of presentations from Jessica Lewis and Marc Jeuland that concerned the impacts of cookstoves on air pollution, health, and fuel.  Jessica Lewis is a third year PhD student in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and is an EPA STAR Doctoral Fellow.  She studies household energy and health and focuses on traditional cooking in developing countries.  Marc Jeuland, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Global Health, Environment, and Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.  In the past, Dr. Jeuland worked with the World Bank and volunteered with the Peace Corps for projects related to water sanitation.  His research includes economic implications of climate change, management of trans-boundary water resources, water sanitation, and environmental health.  Ms. Lewis began with an overview of traditional and im...

On March 25 th the One Health Intellectual Exchange welcomed Browen Dickey, a contributing editor of The Oxford American to discuss “’Demon dogs’ or panicked public? A history of breed scares through the ages.” Ms. Dickey states that through her research she found breed scares are often cyclic, relative to current society, and often not necessarily about the breeds themselves but potential tension between different social groups. Breed scares/bans began as early as 1066 with the Mastiff. This was when royalty did not want those of lower social cast owning these dogs due to the potential of hunting on land owned by the king. Through her research she found that often breed scares could be pin pointed to certain events, such as the St. Bernard and the release of the movie Cujo or guard dog breeds with the increase of crime rates. The current breed scare? The Pit Bull.  This “bully” breeds is beginning to be banned by apartment complexes and making it into certain state legislations. ...

In this week's session, Barbara Kowalcyk, Ph.D. and CEO of the Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention (CFI), a national non-profit organization that prevent foodborne disease by advancing a stronger, science-based food safety system, was  our  honored guest at the North Carolina One Health Intellectual Exchange Group. She received her master's degree in Applied Statistics from the University of Pittsburgh and a Doctorates in Environmental Health with a focus in Epidemiology and Bio-statistics from the University of Cincinnati. Although she began her career as a Statistician at a pharmaceutical company, her passion shifted  to foodborne illnesses  and food safety, due to a tragic personal event. Since then, her research has focused on the microbial aspect of foodborne pathogens and a system to improve epidemiolo...