Ideas@theHouse Presented by Dr Sarah Britton: "Where Worlds Collide: Exploring the Wild/Domestic Animal-Human Interface in One Health"
Thursday, 20 February 2025
Government House
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley
Bujari gamarruwa
Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura
In greeting you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of these lands and waterways, I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and future. I extend that respect to the Elders of all parts of our State from which you have travelled.
Members of the Royal Society of NSW, distinguished guests all, whether here or online,
Tonight marks the 11th iteration of Ideas@theHouse, a collaboration between Government House and the Royal Society of NSW.
As regulars will know, it is a program which explores a rich and varied terrain, whether from the miniscule of the subatomic[1] to the ethereal infinity of the internet[2], from Shakespeare[3] to the laws that govern the Antarctic[4] and more, we have been informed and challenged.
The presentations by thinkers, researchers, and practitioners on the cutting edge of science, the arts, philosophy, and technology across the gamut of our topics have, in essence, posed two questions:
- how we might better think about our world—measure[5], categorise, conceptualise it—in all its broadest senses material, artistic[6], and philosophic,[7] or,
- how we might better act to ensure the world’s diversity, beauty, and sustainability,[8] and, with that, our social, physical,[9] and economic well-being.[10]
Tonight’s presentation, I feel, will embody both these important questions.
As our global experience of COVID-19 made clear—everything is connected.
As is the case with 75% of the 30 new human pathogens detected in the past 3 decades, COVID started in animals.[11] And the zone of interaction through which such pathogens pass is only getting bigger, more complex, and entwined, such that characterising ‘the human’ and ‘the wild’ as two unconnected domains may no longer be a fruitful conceptual model.
Think here of:
- increasing human populations, globalisation, urbanisation, and with that increasing habitat destruction; unregulated and illegal wildlife trade;
- of agricultural and human expansion into new geographic regions and changing land use and technologies;
- and the impacts these have on ecosystem sustainability, our climate, and the potential for maintaining global health security.
My own interest in questions of potential big-picture ramifications caused by disruptions to biodiversity and ecological balance was piqued recently on a visit to NSW’s Department of Primary Industries in Orange. The discussions we were privileged to have on that occasion with the dedicated scientists of the Department—and a side discussion on the madness of the introduction of the cane toad—also told me that tonight’s topic was a must for Ideas@House.
‘One Health’ is a concept and approach the World Health Organisation describes as a recognition “that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and interdependent”.[12]
It is neither a new or novel idea, but it is becoming increasingly relevant—perhaps vitally so—to informing the efforts needed to be taken to prevent or mitigate the potentially devastating economic and social impacts of future disease outbreaks. This is not to be taken lightly. A constant refrain during the last pandemic is that it was a practice run for the next one.
There is no-one more capable of providing insight into these and related issues—on how to think about them and act to address their impact—than tonight’s presenter, who has three decades’ experience in veterinary public health and biosecurity.
Dr Sarah Britton worked for 10 years in the NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI)[13], 5 as the NSW Chief Veterinary Officer[14], during a period in which “all 5 of the most significant emergency animal diseases […] have been detected in or near Australia.”[15]
As the NSW Minister for Agriculture, Tara Moriarty noted, “[Dr Britton has] led the State through a number of significant emergency animal disease responses, including outbreaks of salmonella enteritidis, Japanese encephalitis virus and white spot in prawns […] [and had been] instrumental in improving our preparedness for emergency animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease and lumpy skin disease.”[16]
Director of the One Health Unit established last year in the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC)[17] and Founder and Principal Consultant of One Biosecurity Solutions[18] please join me in welcoming the accomplished, the inspiring, and the always engaging … Dr Sarah Britton…
[1] Manufacturing at the Atomic Scale, presented by Professor Michelle Simmons AO, 4 August 2022
[2] Wx3 – The World Wide Web (we weaved), presented by Ms Julie Inman Grant, 18 July 2024
[3] Shakespeare on Politics—What Can we Learn, presented by Mr John Bell AO OBE, 6 March 2024
[4] The Big Thaw: Who Governs Antarctica’s Ice? Presented by Professor Tim Stephens, 31 October 2024
[5] Ten: The Mapping of Colonial New South Wales, presented by Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy AM, Ideas@theHouse webinar, 21st May 2020
[6] Nothing, presented by Mr Richard Tognetti, 20 April 2022.
[7] Aristotle on Life and Thought in the Sublunary Sphere, presented by Dr John Vallance, 2 March 2023
[8] Marine stewardship and sustainability in a time of acceleration, presented by Professor Emma Johnston AO, 10 August 2023
[9] Music as a Superfood, presented by Greta J. Bradman, 22 July 2021
[10] On the Importance of Scientific Ideas and Discovery to Australia’s Future, presented by Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM, 14 June 2023
[11] ‘About One Health’, Australian Centre for Disease Control website, available here
[12] ‘One Health’, World Health Organisation website, available here
[13] ‘Farewell to NSW Chief Veterinary Officer Sarah Britton’, 11 July 2023, Animal Health Australia website, available here
[14] 2018-2023: The Hon. Tara Moriarty MLC, Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Regional NSW, and Minister for Western NSW, quoted in ‘NSW Chief Veterinary Officer Appointment’, NSW Minister for Agriculture Media Release, 30 June 2023, NSW Government website, available here
[15] ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] ‘Understanding the Interim CDC’s One Health Approach’, Australian Centre for Disease Control website, 9 August 2024, available here