Foreword

Abstract

Tanzania Veterinary Association, hereby commonly referred to as TVA has been organising scientific conferences on annual basis ever since 1983. The three-day and theme-guided annual scientific conferences often provide unique opportunities for professionals to be updated about scientific or technological advancements; able to share experiences and make useful  recommendations to the ministry and stakeholders.  Of recent, TVA has recognized the unique importance of One Health (OH) approaches in surveillance and mitigation of public health risks, notably infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance.   OH approaches are premised on the fact that between 60-80% of public health risks have sources in animals. Other public health risks emanate from foods of crop origin and poor agricultural husbandry practices.  Environmental pollution is also key to human health and broadly ecosystem health. These inter-linkages thereby call for close collaboration between human, animal, plant and environmental health systems in safeguarding the health of mankind and the ecosystem.