Poultry on a market in Mali. S. Molia, © CIRAD

One Health

Plant and animal health is a determining factor for food security in the global South. It depends on the smooth functioning of socio-ecosystems and is directly linked to public health and human wellbeing. Human and animal mobility, animal and plant product trading, agricultural intensification, territorial extension of production operations, phytosanitary and veterinary product use, climate change, extreme natural phenomena and ecological upheavals all exacerbate sanitary risks and complicate the issues for health research.

Working to improve health management means understanding the the biological, economic, social and agronomic factors that trigger health crises and imbalances within socio-ecosystems.

To this end, CIRAD has opted to build integrated health management strategies, which means developing interdisciplinarity, allowing disciplinary approaches and interaction and innovation in terms of analysing human, animal, plant and environmental health systems and how they are regulated. Modelling can facilitate the development of such integrated approaches. The aim is also to take account of the various interactions and interfaces between the elements and silos in the systems studied (hosts-vectors-pathogens, environment-agricultural production-food-health silos, etc).