Frank Koenen
Operational Director
Biodiversity & Health Newsletter - February 2019. Access the full newsletter here.
- How is the relation between nature & human health part of your work/activities?
As coordinator of One Health in Sciensano a scientific research institute on public and veterinary health, the link with nature and human health is very important. However the environment is not a federal competence we seek for collaboration in order to handle the subjects in a One Health perspective. For example on anti microbial resistance (AMR) we want to include the role of the environment in the resistance. Animal health is covered by several services of Sciensano.
- How important is collaboration between different groups in networks like the Belgian Community of Practice Biodiversity & Health?
We fully support the statement on the Community of Practice on Biodiversity & Health website: “To better integrate biodiversity and health in research, policy and practice, the adoption of inter- and transdisciplinary approaches that incorporate contributions from both the social and natural sciences, and from policy and practice is needed. One Health is one of the approaches that aims to bridge human health and the health of other species or ecosystems to address complex challenges faced by the global health and environmental communities.”
We intent to achieve this by creating an internal platform of experts and in collaboration with the federal services an external platform with experts and professionals. In these external platforms, early signal detection and exchange of data will be very important. The outcome from these external platforms can be immediately confirmed by Sciensano’s reference laboratories. This can result to a quicker action and more solid reports and advices.
- Where would you like the work on nature - health linkages to be in a few years?
The newly created Sciensano aims to be the scientific partner for One Health surveillance and will support the authorities in scientific risk assessment and surveillance. In our field of interest we would like an holistic One Health approach on AMR, Food born infections, zoonosis, vector borne diseases and risk assessment of mixed exposure.