During one week in May, SASUF Research and Innovation Week 2024 took place, bringing together researchers, teachers, students, and university management representatives from all 40 SASUF partner universities. The week was divided into two parts: Satellite events across Sweden, the Sustainability Forum hosted by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, together with Malmö and Lund University.
As part of the SASUF innovation week, Stefan Bertilsson and Anna Székely from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), together with Carlos Bezuidenhout from North-West University (NWU), and Sanna Koskiniemi from Uppsala University, held a workshop titled "Navigating the OneHealth landscape with the lens of microbial ecology".
In the workshop, Carlos and Sanna provided an overview of the study of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the environment, and Stefan presented different methods of environmental detection of pathogens.
Stefan and Anna: During your workshop, did your participants come up with any key messages?
"We had 14 participants from diverse backgrounds, from medical biotechnology to ecology and social sciences. We had a vivid discussion about the topic facilitated by Menti, and we defined the need for clean water as a top goal of environmental microbiology within the One Health concept. And that the development of environmental pathogen detection should include both centralised facilities with state-of-the-art methodology as well as point-of-care applications that inform and help decision-making on the spot."
Image description – The concept of the One Health approach:
"One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems. It recognises the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and inter-dependent.
The approach mobilises multiple sectors, disciplines and communities at varying levels of society to work together to foster well-being and tackle threats to health and ecosystems while addressing the collective need for clean water, energy and air, safe and nutritious food, taking action on climate changes and contributing to sustainable development. Ref: One Health Commission.
Curious to find out more about this event?
All the information about the event (the programme, articles, posters and photos) is available on this page.
