That animal and human health are interdependent is increasingly recognised. Sixty percent of infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, but despite their combined prevalence and statutory reporting in the UK, zoonoses are poorly studied. Of additional concern is antimicrobial resistance and its relationship to antibiotic use in food animals where agricultural and animal health workers are directly at risk of colonisation with drug-resistant bacteria through close contact with infected animals.

vHive are working on a collaborative One Health project supported by Zoetis using a large cohort of patient-level anonymised human clinical data from primary and secondary care records to investigate the burden of zoonotic disease and antimicrobial resistance on health. The data is being sourced from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). The data analysis will be conducted by a research consultancy in Cardiff with experience in analysing CPRD data. Phase 1 of the project aims to:

• Expand literature for epidemiology, impacts and determinants of zoonotic disease in the UK
• Inform disease prevention strategies across medical and veterinary professions, animal health industries and wider community
• Investigate the significance of human-animal interactions by linking human and animal datasets

This study has two objectives:

1. To characterise the burden of human illness associated with a range of zoonotic diseases;
2. To explore the association between occupational exposure to food animals and antimicrobial treatment patterns (ATP), antibiotic treatment failure (ATF), and reported AMR.