One Health in Europe: from concept to practice

The One Health concept is a comprehensive approach that highlights the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health. Understanding these interrelationships is essential for effectively managing and mitigating emerging health threats. This approach emphasizes that health issues arise from a complex web of interactions involving humans, animals, and ecosystems.

Emerging health threats, such as zoonotic diseases (e.g., mpox, Ebola, avian influenza), antibiotic resistance, and environmental degradation, pose significant risks to global health. Zoonotic diseases, which are transmitted between animals and humans, highlight the direct links between animal and human health. The increase in antibiotic resistance, driven by overuse in both human medicine and livestock farming, leads to the rise of resistant pathogens. Environmental issues like climate change, deforestation, and pollution further exacerbate these threats by altering habitats, disrupting ecosystems, and affecting disease vectors.

Addressing these interconnected challenges requires a unified approach that integrates human, animal, and environmental considerations. For example, climate change can shift the distribution of disease vectors like mosquitoes, leading to the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. Likewise, deforestation can heighten the risk of zoonotic spillover by bringing humans into closer contact with wildlife.

1. To tackle these complex challenges, several measures are crucial:

• Integrated surveillance systems

Developing systems that monitor human, animal, and environmental health data collectively can improve early detection of outbreaks. Sharing information across sectors is a prerequisite for effective identification of emerging threats.

• Strengthening veterinary and public health collaboration

Joint research, surveillance, and outbreak management efforts can lead to a more coordinated approach to health emergencies.

• Promoting One Health education and training

Educating professionals in various fields fosters a collaborative approach to health issues. Training programmes can build a shared understanding of health interconnections.

• Implementing sustainable environmental practices

Adopting sustainable practices to address environmental degradation helps reduce risks associated with habitat destruction and pollution.

• International collaboration and agreements facilitate resource sharing, information exchange, and best practices.

2. To enhance public health strategies within the One Health framework:

• Enhance interdisciplinary research

Promote research on the intersections of human, animal, and environmental health to understand how changes in one area affect others and to develop more effective interventions.

• Foster community engagement

Engage communities to improve the adoption of preventive measures and build resilience against health threats through public awareness and community-based programs.

Leverage technology and innovation

Innovations can offer valuable insights such as data analytics, remote sensing, and genomic surveillance.

In our upcoming plenary session, experts from veterinary and public health sciences will present practical examples on One Health collaboration in Europe and discuss how to address challenges in implementing the approach.

Ricardo Mexia

Chair of the 17th EPH Conference 2024, President EUPHA Infectious diseases control section

Lorena Boix

Deputy Director-General, Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), European Commission

Stef Bronzwaer

Cross-Agency One Health Task Force, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

Barbara Häsler

Royal Veterinary College, UK

Susana Guedes Pombo

Chief Veterinary Officer, Portugal, President World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH)

Eva Zažímalová

Member of European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, Professor of Plant Anatomy and Physiology, Charles University, Czech Republic