One Health approach – examining environmental and animal samples for infectious agents

Acknowledging that the health of humans, animals and ecosystems is closely linked and can influence each other is a central element of the One Health concept (One Health High-Level Expert Panel et al., 2022). Climate change also plays an important role, as it increasingly affects humans, animals and ecosystems. Climate change also has a direct and indirect impact on infectious agents and thus on infectious diseases. Leptospirosis is a good example of a “one-health” disease, partly due to the complex epidemiology and increase of outbreaks after extreme weather events such as flooding. Other examples are protozoan parasites that display improved survivability and tenacity in the environment. Hence, they may have a potential to serve as sentinel pathogens measuring the effect of changing environmental factors (such as climate change). Samples from wild rodents and food-providing wild animals are to be tested for leptospires, protozoa a.o. together with environmental samples (water and soil samples). The data generated will also be analyzed in conjunction with weather and environmental metadata from the sample origins. The overall aim of this project is to generate information on the occurrence of infectious agents in reservoir animals, water and soil samples in Germany. The information generated in this way can help to improve the data situation in Germany and serve as a basis for scientific risk assessments and control strategies.
One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP), Adisasmito WB, Almuhairi S, Behravesh CB, Bilivogui P, et al. (2022) One Health: A new definition for a sustainable and healthy future. PLOS Pathogens 18(6): e1010537. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1010537