European - Southeast Asian experts' One Health in action workshop: From One Health theory to reality: Practical challenges, impacts of One Health initiatives and gaps in research

Abstract

One Health is a multidisciplinary approach to achieve optimal health for people, animals and the environment through local, regional and global research collaboration. Particularly in Southeast Asia, One Health has gained much more attention due to the rise of cross-species epidemics such as SARS, avian influenza, and Nipah virus. With 70% of emerging diseases being of animal origins, this has become a crucial issue for Southeast Asia due to increasingly high urbanization rate and dramatic expansion of livestock production. To address these concerns, an expert workshop "From One Health Theory to Reality: Practical challenges, impact of One Health initiatives and gaps in research" was held in Vietnam as part of the European Project SEA-EU-NET "ASEAN-EU Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation jointly tackling global challenges" (www.sea-eu.net) - a European Union's Seventh Framework Program-funded project which aims at strengthening S&T cooperation between Europe and Southeast Asia. CIRAD on behalf of SEA-EU-NET partners organized this expert workshop on One Health, focusing on lessons learned from practical experience of One Health implementation and foresight research needs. Six local and international organizations including National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), the National Institute for Veterinary Research (NIVR), the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD), the British High Council Singapore (BHC), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Southeast Asia One Health University Network (SEAOHUN) jointly organize this workshop. The workshop held from 13-15 October 2014 in Hanoi, Vietnam gathered more than 100 delegates from 17 countries with over 20 scientific presentations, shared experiences, interventions and solutions to cover three areas: (i) One Health surveillance; (ii) One Health and EcoHealth research at the interface between wildlife, domestic animals and people; and (iii) One Health challenges around antimicrobial resistance.