UWA Handbook 2025

Minor Overview

About this minor

The World Health Organisation and Centres for Disease Control have identified zoonotic infections as a risk to human health as highlighted by diseases such as ebola, SARS, H5N1 and most recently COVID-19. The concept of OneHealth is an acknowledgment of the interplay between human, animal and environmental health. There is currently a OneHealth network worldwide encouraging dialogue and collaboration between the three health areas. The objective of this minor is to enhance the knowledge and skills of the participants on One Health. The participants will understand the importance of working in the multidisciplinary team and understanding the control of zoonotic illnesses requires a multidisciplinary approach i.e. environmental, biological, medical and veterinary teams, instilling in students an appreciation of the interdisciplinary nature of ecosystem, animal and human health and giving students the tools to work in cross disciplinary fields. The minor deliberately draws on three existing units in different disciplines (Anthropology, History and Public Health ) that all link into people, ecology and the environment through their own lens, giving the students different perspectives and methodologies for linking human, animal and ecosystem health. For students taking a minor which shares units with their other unit sets (majors or minors): in order for minors to be recognised on academic and graduation documents, students may only have a maximum of one unit overlapping between their unit sets.

Outcomes

Students are able to (1) demonstrate an understanding of the critical health links between humans, animals and ecosystems; (2) Identify the major infectious diseases associated with animals and describe their epidemiology; (3) demonstrate an understanding of the impacts of ecosystems on human and animal health; (4) demonstrate an understanding of the need for multidisciplinary approaches for tackling zoonotic infections; and (5) Collect, analyse and interpret data from a range of disciplines and communicate the findings effectively..

Units