Tennessee One Health Committee holds first formal meeting; ETSU researcher lays out five priorities

The newly formalized Tennessee One Health Committee convened for its first formal meeting, where an East Tennessee State University researcher summarized the stateof One Health activity and proposed five priorities for state action.

"The One Health framework calls for and promotes the collaboration, coordination and communication across professionals in public health, veterinary medicine, wildlife, environment, emergency preparedness, and many more," said Dr. Walid Alali, professor of infectious disease epidemiology and interim chair of the ETSU Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, as he outlined a baseline review of Tennessee initiatives, gaps and recommendations.

Alali said the review mapped initiatives housed across state agencies and universities and grouped them into workforce and capacity, education and training, disease monitoring and surveillance, environmental health and conservation, rapid response to emerging threats, and public awareness. He flagged four crosscutting challenges: zoonotic diseases, emerging contaminants, climate change and biodiversity loss, and he recommended targeted actions to address each.

"Cross‑sector data sharing is really important," Alali said, calling for formal data‑sharing agreements, integrated online platforms and regular stakeholder meetings to enable earlier detection and coordinated responses to zoonotic threats. He also urged investment in joint workforce training, one health fellowships and increased lab capacity.

State agency participants described current and recent activity that illustrates the need for the committeework. Alli Williamson, legislative director at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, said the stateunwanted pharmaceuticals program has collected more than 893,000 pounds of unused medications since 2011 and reported 68,556 pounds collected so far in 2025; Williamson said all 95 counties now participate through 387 permanent collection locations. Williamson also described ongoing coordination with the Tennessee Department of Health on PFAS response and said the division of water resources now requires annual PFOS monitoring in biosolids under the new general land application permit.

Samantha Beaty, assistant commissioner of animal health at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and state veterinarian, said the state has not recorded commercial detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza this fall but has isolated the virus in some privately owned birds and recorded a show‑pig positive for endemic swine influenza. She described active surveillance, quarantine measures and partnerships with federal labs for diagnostics. Beaty also noted that TDAhas a forthcoming vacancy for a dedicated one health veterinarian position and expects recruitment after the new year.

Alali discussed environmental health issues including harmful algal blooms and PFAS monitoring. He cited examples of prior interagency collaborations that contained outbreaks and handled large responses, including a multiagency response that disposed of more than 400,000 birds during the 2022–23 highly pathogenic avian influenza events.

He closed with practical recommendations: secure dedicated funding and roles for one health workforce, scale K–12 through graduate education efforts in partnership with state agencies, formalize data‑sharing agreements and build integrated platforms, and invest in climate and biodiversity research to link exposures to health outcomes.

Voting members thanked Alali for the review; the committee will meet quarterly, with at least one in‑person meeting annually, and staff said future dates and public‑comment procedures will be posted on the Tennessee One Health webpage and the Tennessee Department of Health calendar.