Socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 in a one health context

Abstract

The last decades saw a significant increase in the number of infectious disease outbreaks while current economic systems put pressure on the environment and wildlife is being destructed, leading to species to live closer to each another and humans. These zoonoses cause loss of life and threaten economic development and the integrity of the ecosystems. The recent COVID-19 is a significant example of this situation with a dramatic loss of human life, devastating economies and causing social disruption. The COVID-19 pandemic has also threatened food security, putting millions of people at risk of hunger, disrupted food, and feed supply routes, put pressure on livestock industries, led to a decrease in world meat production, caused trade restrictions, changed consumer habits, affected animal health and animal welfare. In this study, the main drivers of zoonoses, socio-economic impacts of these zoonoses with an emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary actions that need to be taken to prevent further epidemics/pandemics have been discussed in the context of “One Health” approach.

Keywords

• one health
• covid-19
• socio-economic
• preventive health
• zoonotic diseases

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