Successful One Health EJP side event at ONE Conference 2022 – 27th June 2022.
We celebrate the success of the One Health EJP side event at ONE Conference 2022 in Brussels!
This high-level panel, hybrid event on “One Health EJP – Lessons learnt from a European multidisciplinary initiative” was held on 22nd June. It provided engaging roundtable discussions with eight guest speakers from key European organisations and institutions involved in public health, animal health and food safety sectors. Discussions among panel members and audience questions led to insightful considerations about the One Health approach and its future impacts in Europe and more globally.
Our Scientific Coordinator, Hein Imberechts (Sciensano) provided a comprehensive overview of the One Health EJP. He explained that the Consortium’s success was based on a multidisciplinary framework with cross-sector collaborations to facilitate One Health research on foodborne zoonoses, emerging threats and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Hein emphasised the importance of One Health EJP research and integrative activities having impact on science, society, and policy. Nadia Boysen (Statens Serum Institut) as Project Leader for JIP OH-HARMONY-CAP then shared her experiences of coordinating multiple institutions to harmonise protocols for the detections of foodborne pathogens and AMR determinants across health sectors. She highlighted how researchers and health professionals should learn to speak the same One Health language.
Peter Sousa Hoejskov (World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe), Stef Bronzwaer (European Food Safety Authority) and Ole Heuer (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) described each of their organisation’s relationship with our Consortium to benefit One Health platforms and networks globally. These speakers and Thomas Mettenleiter (Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut and member of the Quadripartite One Health High-Level Expert Panel) also advised on increased involvement of the environment sector in One Health. Since the global challenges of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss must be addressed using the One Health approach. Arjen van de Giessen (RIVM) represented the Med-Vet-Net Association and he recommended strengthening One Health preparedness, based on lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Future advancement of One Health depends upon the next generation of scientists – our current PhD students and early career researchers- to drive these ideas forward. Ingrid Cardenas Rey PhD student of VIMOGUT project (Wageningen University and Research) explained how the One Health EJP education and training opportunities have increased her skills and networks. Her confidence to deliver impactful research highlights the value of our Consortium’s work to develop young scientists.
We would like to thank all the speakers, our enthusiastic moderator – Pikka Jokelainen (Statens Serum Institut), our organisers and attendees for their valuable contributions to this event.
The final message from Thomas Mettenleiter “One Health is a way of living!”
One Health. Stronger Together.
