BeOH event: Ecosystems in the balance 22-23 Jan 2025

The Belgian Biodiversity Platform and Sciensano organised an event bringing together national and international One Health actors, and focusing on the links between One Health and ecosystems.

 

Location:
Herman Teirlinckbuilding
Havenlaan/Avenue du Port 88, 1000 Brussels

 

This One Health event addressed ecosystem, animal, and human health issues in an interdisciplinary way, focusing on the role of environmental factors influencing possible pathways of infectious disease emergence, and on prevention, early warning mechanisms and effective preparedness solutions.

The overarching topics were:

  • Biodiversity loss and climate change
  • Impact of wildlife trade
  • Risks associated with Invasive Alien Species
  • Data and surveillance approaches

The event was designed for experts and stakeholders interested in intersectoral cooperation, and administrators and policymakers.

The 22 January and the morning of 23 January consisted of plenary sessions with invited speakers, and the afternoon of 23 January was dedicated to parallel workshops.


There was also an opportunity for poster presentations.

 

 

 

 

SPEAKERS

 

Welcome address
Dr Pierre Kerkhofs, Director General DG Environment, Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, Brussels, Belgium

Opening Speech
Dr Hilde Eggermont, Director INBO (Research Institute for Nature and Forest), IUCN Vice President, Future For Nature Board member, Brussels, Belgium

 

Biodiversity Loss and Climate Change

Keynote: Integrated Approach to Ecosystems: The Place of One Health and its Future
Prof. Dr Jakob Zinsstag, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Allschwil, Switzerland

One Health in Action: Balancing Livelihoods, Livestock, and Ecosystems Health in Central Asia
Dr. Stephane Ostrowski, Senior Advisor of Temperate Asia Region & Associate Director of Wildlife Health Program, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), New York, U.S.A.

Environmental Stressors and Infectious Diseases in the Arctic
Prof. Dr Jacques Godfroid, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Climate and Biodiversity Crises: Threats to Human and Animal Health in Belgium and Beyond
MSc Pablo Sagredo Martín, One Health Officer, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Brussels, Belgium

'Your climate change is not my climate change’: An Eco-Health Perspective on Research at the Cutting Edge of Urbanization, Climate Change and Health
MSc Stefanie Dens, Civil Engineer, Architect and Urban Designer for the Datahub, Eco-health group, Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium

Impact of Wildlife Trade and Risks Associated with Invasive Alien Species

KeynoteA Regional and Global Perspective on Pathogens at the Animal-Human-Environmental Interface
Prof. Dr Sascha Knauf, Institute of International Animal Health/One Health, Friedrich Loeffler Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Greifswald - Insel Riems and Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Reducing Health Risks in Wildlife Trade Through a Multidimensional Approach
Dr. Michael Nagel, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Bonn, Germany

Operationalising a One Health Approach in Wildlife Trade and Disease Risk Management
MSc Justine Guiny, Senior Policy Manager TRAFFIC, Brussels, Belgium

Integrating Invasion Science and One Health: A Pathway to More Effective and Sustainable Management of Health and Ecological Challenges
Dr. Sonia Vanderhoeven, Belgian Biodiversity Platform, Brussels, Belgium 

The Management of Biological Invasions Within the One Health Concept
MSc Riccardo Scalera, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG), Rome, Italy

Data and Surveillance

Keynote: Preventing the Emergence of Zoonoses: From Exploring Pathogen Transmission to Implementation of Public Policies
Anne-Laure Bañuls, French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), Montpellier, France

Making Sense of Complexity - The Role of AI in Advancing One Health 
M. Didier Verloo, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, Italy

Global Biodiversity Data as a Resource for Vector-Borne Disease Research and Policy
Prof. Dr Sylvie Manguin, French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), Montpellier, France

Land Systems Data, Pathogen Vector Data, Are We on the Same Page? 
Prof. Dr Sophie Vanwambeke, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Wildlife in Focus: Sources or Victims of Emerging Zoonotic Diseases? The Importance of Wildlife Surveillance
Prof. Dr Dolores Gavier-Widén, Swedish Veterinary Agency, Uppsala, Sweden

 

POSTERS

  1. Leuven One Health - the KU Leuven Institute for One Health
  2. The biodiversity inside us: the human microbiome as a One Health indicator of health and environmental exposure
  3. Exotic animals as a pet: how these alien species can be a risk for infectious diseases?
  4. Monitoring the wild meat trade through DNA barcoding and pathogen screening of passenger-imported meat
  5. Increasing detections of the invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus in Belgium
  6. Echinococcus multilocularis contamination of commercially grown berries and infection of foxes in the Dutch province of Limburg
  7. Leveraging ecosystem restoration for zoonotic spillover risk mitigation
  8. The surveillance of tick bites on humans and additional research opportunities through citizen science in Belgium
  9. Metagenomic screening of African wild meat unveils a wide diversity of viruses
  10. Vector competence of Belgian Culex pipiens and Anopheles plumbeus mosquitoes for West Nile Virus under different temperature conditions
  11. Human disturbance, biodiversity loss and the dynamics of snail-borne parasites
  12. New routes of Hyalomma to Austria: an unwanted souvenir
  13. Intercropping dashboard: Fostering food safety and quality
  14. Mapping the threat: invasive alien species and pathogen risks across Europe
  15. Environmental, animal and human health: a One Health approach to protected area management and governance in Madagascar
  16. ZooBiodiv project: supporting the development of a Belgian One World, One Health (OWOH) vision for preventing the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases
  17. Are turtles a suitable pet or a disguised threat? Potential disease-causing agents in imported pet turtles in Europe
  18. Coordinated effort for the surveillance of zoonotic influenza in Austria
  19. Expanding the swimmer’s itch pool of Belgium: a first record of Trichobilharzia regenti
  20. Climate Justice and Health Equity - The ongoing challenge for the Planetary Health Working Group of the Be-cause health network
  21. West Nile virus monitoring in Flanders (Belgium) during 2022-2023 reveals endemic Usutu virus circulation in the wild bird population
  22. Supporting the One Health approach in Belgium: identification of policy-relevant organisms and tissues by BopCo
  23. Restoring nature's health: Investigating the effects of ecosystem restoration on zoonotic disease risk
  24. Ecosystem Accounting to support decision-making for infectious disease control
  25. Vulnerable and detected? Assessing surveillance of wildlife diseases by determining mammal species vulnerability to climate change

For questions or if you need further information about this event please contact: BeOH@sciensano.be.

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