Singh, Brajesh K., Yan, Zhen Zhen, Whittaker, Maxine, Vargas, Ronald, and Abdelfattah, Ahmed (2023) Soil microbiomes must be explicitly included in One Health policy. Nature Microbiology, 8. pp. 1367-1372.

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Abstract

[Extract] “One Health is an integrated and unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems”1. It proposes a global strategy to monitor and manage infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), utilizing transdisciplinary approaches for human, animal and environmental health. Despite 18 years of its existence, we have seen a significant increase in the spread and emergence of diseases driven by operational inefficiency (for example, resource availability and distribution), particularly at regional and local levels2,3. The severity of the situation is further exacerbated by environmental pollution and climate change, including extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and globalized trade and travel. A wider acknowledgement of various environmental factors, the services that they provide, and their potential benefits and risks for human and animal health is urgently needed. This will ensure that cost-effective and environmentally sustainable approaches are used for the management of One Health issues4. In recent years, efforts that take an integrative approach — for example, the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) joining the One Health approach — re-emphasize the critical role of the environment in the One Health concept1. However, key gaps remain. Here, we propose that broader adoption of system-based approaches, with explicit inclusion of soil health and in particular its microbiome (including bacteria, archaea, microbial eukaryotes and viruses), is required for the success of the One Health approach and its associated policies.

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