The GCRF One Health Poultry Hub held a Showcase Event featuring a panel discussion with distinguished guests on Future Priorities for One Health and Safer Food Systems. It marked the end of five and a half years of interdisciplinary research and impact-related activities in which the team took a One Health approach to address the challenge of how to meet Asia’s rising demand for poultry meat and eggs while minimising risks to local, regional and international public health.

The event, which also  saw key findings and legacies shared by senior Hub investigators, was introduced by Professor Stuart Reid, Principal of RVC, the Hub’s lead partner. Hub Director Professor Fiona Tomley sadly could not attend the event for health reasons.

 

Panel discussion

View our panel of world-leading experts discussing and answering questions on Future Priorities for One Health and Safer Food Systems. The panel comprised:

  1. Professor David Heymann, public health physician, Infectious Disease Epidemiology Professor at London School of Health and Tropical Medicine and Distinguished Fellow at Chatham House, UK.
  2. Professor Steve Hinchliffe, a social scientist with expertise in food, farming and human-animal health with the Department of Geography, Faculty of Environment, Science, and Economy, University of Exeter, and until recently a co-director of the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health at Exeter.
  3. Professor Melissa Leach, Director, Cambridge Conservation Initiative, UK.
  4. Dr Christine Middlemiss, UK Chief Veterinary Officer, Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK.

The panel was chaired by Professor Robyn Alders of Chatham House Global Health Programme.

 

avian influenza findings

Listen to Dr Guillaume Fournié discuss research into viral transmission dynamics and disease risk along poultry production and distribution networks. He discusses One Health Poultry Hub findings showing that avian influenza virus movements are determined by the configuration of these networks – and further that the behaviour of people in the networks are influenced by the structural constraints they face. This makes top-down interventions designed to lower disease risk, especially those interventions restricted to markets, only of limited impact.

 

microbiological findings

Listen to Professor Damer Blake share headline findings from the One Health Poultry Hub’s microbiological work. Key among these were that of meat samples screened for 69 antimicrobials at maximum reside levels, 6.1% of samples from Vietnam, 8.6% from Bangladesh and 3.7% from Gujarat tested for antimicrobial residue levels (compared with 0.03-0.2% in Europe). These levels indicate both direct and indirect risk to human health.

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policy findings

Listen to Professor Robyn Alders on the challenge of translating the scientific evidence from the One Health Poultry Hub into policy action for safer, more sustainable poultry production. She talks through some examples of Hub stakeholder engagement – from meetings to webinars to working with communities, and discusses impacts ranging from Hub work feeding directly into preparation of the first national poultry policy in Sri Lanka to playing an important role in bringing diverse sectors in Vietnam together for joint action to stop the spread of antimicrobial resistance.