Back to the roots in One Health: How plants and animals can stay healthy with the help of daylight

DLA Annual Conference 2024
Parallel session A

Thursday, 30 May 2024
from 15:00 to 17:00

Lead
Dr Michael J. Balick, The New York Botanical Garden, USA
Prof. K. David Harrison, VinUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam
PD Dr Kristjan Plaetzer, Paris Lodron University Salzburg, Austria
Prof. Heinrich Walt, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

Description
In our recent workshops with a focus on One Health, we mainly addressed human health in countries with low income. However, this would not be possible without carefully analysing life of our partners who are the plants and the animals that comprise the ecosystems in which humans live as well. Conservation/One Health are most effective when multiple perspectives including biology, human behavior and cultural beliefs and values are considered. The first part of the program’s focus will include biological and cultural aspects of ecosystem protection and management, including an example of how local communities have developed a “bottom up” approach to ensuring that their forest ecosystems are intact so that future generations can share the benefits of living in healthy environments. This will include mention of a culturally important species that is highly endangered and the role of the community in repopulating forests to ensure that this species thrives. In the second part, we will explore how photodynamic methods can benefit the veterinary field within a One Health framework: on one hand, using photosensitizers together with daylight or artificial light can effectively manage microbial infections and even treat tumors in animals. On the other hand, this approach can serve as novel, economic and ecofriendly procedure to control pests in agriculture by acting as photo insecticide. Both revolutionary approaches shall be discussed.

Objectives

  • Protecting forest ecosystems in both South Pacific and Vietnam, what are the needs and what the differences? (Part 1)
  • New applications for using daylight and photosensitizers against insect pests in plants and how can we minimize the use of antibiotics in animals? (Part 2)

 

Note: According to the World Health Organization the areas in which the One Health concept is particularly relevant include food safety, the control of zoonoses, and combatting antibiotic resistance

More information about the programme