One Health is an approach that recognises that human health is closely connected to plant, animal and ecosystem health.
The mission is: To understand ecological, evolutionary, and molecular processes of organisms and the environment to improve their health.
Efforts across human societies have greatly increased living standards and conditions for humans while crucially intensifying agriculture across the globe. However, intensification of agriculture along with the increase in global human population and urbanization has increased the health risks for humans, animals and plants, by increasing the emergence and spread of pests, pathogens and parasites. Climate change may give rise to metabolic disruptions and oxidative stress of individuals and decrease their resistance to different diseases. Furthermore, society experiences everyday consequences of global trade, monocultures, landscape fragmentation, biodiversity loss, non-selective pesticide use and rise in resistance to control measures (e.g. antimicrobial resistance), which all can have health consequences. Looking for the solutions for these societal challenges is the focus of many research projects of the One Health theme where the uniqueness is in the embedding of health while embracing natural and agricultural ecosystem settings.
Collaboration and communication between experts from different fields in a holistic approach are key features of the One Health philosophy. The research theme One Health at PE&RC represents a joint effort, made possible by the exchange of ideas, people, facilities and data, via collaborations between researchers participating in PE&RC. The members of the PE&RC contribute to the development of core ideas of health of living organisms and systems by using their state-of-the-art expertise in molecular biology, genetics, evolution, ecology and agriculture. They explore and investigate urgent problems, to find answers to related questions, and/or describe and analyse possible scenarios for solutions to contribute to promotion of health. By working locally, regionally, nationally, and globally, the aim is to retain and recover health for humans, animals, plants, and the environment at these different scales.