The Amadu Ali Centre was initiated with an endowment from Senator (Dr.) Amadu Ali, who had the foresight to specify that the research institute should embraces both veterinary and human disease research. The combination of human and veterinary research is very appropriate now because of the current global disease profile. Out of the 1415 known human pathogens, about 60 % are zoonotic (transmissible from animals to man), however, in the current dispensation, 75% of the new emerging infectious diseases pathogens are zoonotic, and have wildlife as reservoir hosts or vectors or both. Veterinarians have long experience in zoonosis, and can contribute significantly to the study of human diseases. Research needed for control of these diseases requires collaboration between the medical and veterinary professions to facilitate simultaneous evaluation of the disease burden in human and animal populations.
In a news conference in 2004, Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) Atlanta, USA supported the collaboration between human and veterinary medicine in the following statement: “Eleven out of the last 12 human emerging infectious diseases in the world have arisen from animal sources”. She suggested that what we really need to work on was the relationship between the human health surveillance system and the animal health surveillance system and the one very important point of intersection is the laboratories which needed to be shared”. Consequently, the Amadu Ali Centre adopted the ‘One Medicine’ concept as a guiding principle.
The One Medicine Initiative is a movement to forge co-equal, all-inclusive collaborations between physicians, osteopaths, veterinarians, dentists, nurses and other scientific-health and environmentally related disciplines, including the American Medical Association, American Veterinary Medical Association.