Prof. PARK Yong Ho



Chair, CODEX Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance

Professor, Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University

Professor Park has achieved his DVM and MS at College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Korea. In 1991, he has obtained his PhD in veterinary microbiology at Washington State University, US. He has worked at National Veterinary Research Institute for 18 years starting from 1978 to 1995 until he moved to Professor at College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University.

He has been appointed as an adjunct Professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University since 1996 and has been also appointed as an affiliate professor at Mississippi State University since 2013.

Prof. Park has served as a dean of College of Veterinary Medicine, SNU from 2007 and honored as fellow at Korean Academy of Science and Technology. During 2008-2010, Professor Park has served as a president of Asian Association of Veterinary Schools (AAVS), and also a president of the Korean Society of Food Hygiene and Safety and a president of Korean Society for Zoonoses and chairperson of Korean Society of Veterinary Science. From 2011 to 2014, he has worked as a Commissioner at the Animal, Plant, Fisheries, Quarantine and Inspection Agency, KOREA. Currently, he has returned to the previous position as a professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University. Now, Prof. Park is a Commissioner of Korea BioMAX Institute at SNU. Recently he has been appointed as a Chair of CODEX AMR T/F during 2017-2020. He has published more than 250 papers, mainly pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance of zoonotic diseases, at referred journals and got 20 patents and wrote 6 book chapters.

Session 5: From action plan to actions (2)

[5.3] One health approaches to combating AMR: Korean experience

One health approaches, ‘One health, one medicine’, have been globally recognized to control zoonotic diseases. World Organization of Animal Health (OIE) has reported 60% of human pathogens are animal origin and more than 75% of emerging animal diseases are zoonoses. This means collaboration and cooperation between animal and human medicine together can only solve the problem.

Minimizing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is global concern and each country and international organization including WHO, OIE, FAO and Codex establish collaborative task forces to challenge this problem. The concern that the use of antimicrobials in animal and human can increase the risk of selection of antimicrobial resistant bacteria that may cause failure of treatment has led to international expert meeting and reports. Although the prevalence of zoonotic antimicrobial resistant bacteria in food animals is maintained still low, however, resistant genotypes similar to or identical with those of the human isolates were also found in non-human sources. Therefore, the risk management Interventions should be urgently implemented. Recent huge outbreaks of HPAI and MERS in Korea have been more pay attention to implement one health approaches in practice.

A “One health” approach to antimicrobial use and resistance is essential to minimize the antimicrobial resistance in humans and animals, because these are the responsibility of all three health communities: human health, animal health, and environmental health-communities. Surveillance of antimicrobial usage and resistance provides important data for the identification of resistance problems and contributing factors for the development and spread of resistance at a national and local level. AMR trends should be consistently monitored over time and across geographical areas and should be shared at the regional and global levels. Furthermore, harmonization and standardization are needed to compare the situations at the national and international levels.

Through the painful experience of these zoonotic diseases we may establish the effective preventive method and early diagnosis as critical control strategies. Prevention and control of infections is essential in fighting antimicrobial resistance. Thus, to minimize infections in animal and human and to decrease the volume of antimicrobials used, efforts should aim to improve animal and human health.