Today, fellow scientists and policymakers join the end symposium of the international project COHESIVE: One Health Structures in Europe. COHESIVE focused on strengthening structured collaboration between the human, veterinary, food and environmental domains in the area of signalling, risk assessment and control of (emerging) zoonoses in and between European Member States. RIVM was the coordinator of COHESIVE.
Multidisciplinary approach
The objective of COHESIVE is a world with less zoonotic disease burden. Over the past four years, public health, food and veterinary institutes from eight European countries joined forces to strengthen human and veterinary collaboration. Zoonoses are a constant threat to human and animal health. A systematic cross-sectoral (One Health) approach to share signals, assess risks and coordinate the response is essential to minimise the impact of zoonotic diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the need for this multidisciplinary approach.
End symposium
During this 3-day symposium from 8 to 10 November, COHESIVE will present the results of the international research collaboration and provide more insight into the developed products, such as IT solutions for sharing information and supporting tracing of (foodborne) outbreaks. COHESIVE also developed web-based guidelines, ‘One Health: Setting up a risk analysis system for zoonoses’ for countries to set up One Health collaborations and a decision-making tool to help select the best suitable tool supporting risk assessment in a specific situation. These guidelines will be published soon.
One Health European Joint Programme
International collaboration is key to preventing zoonotic threats since the spread of zoonotic infections does not stop at borders. COHESIVE is an integrative project within the One Health European Joint Programme, a research and health programme of the European Union.