One Health and the Environment at SLU: Current Status and Opportunities

Despite SLU’s strong expertise in environmental and ecological sciences, it’s One Health activities have traditionally focused on veterinary sciences, with limited emphasis on environmental health. Globally, the importance of environmental health within One Health frameworks is increasing, driven by challenges such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), biodiversity loss, and the impacts of climate change and pollution.

Key Findings

Education: While SLU’s programs address environmental topics like sustainable agriculture and forestry, explicit links to One Health remain limited. Only one program explicitly identifies as One Health-related.

Research: Many researchers work on environmental health topics but often do not explicitly connect their work to One Health, highlighting an opportunity for better alignment.

Collaboration: Few centers explicitly identify with One Health, though many have the potential to integrate its principles through existing research and partnerships.

Recommendations

Enhance Awareness: Raise awareness of the One Health framework across SLU faculties through targeted outreach and educational initiatives towards lesser represented areas.

Integrate into Education: Develop interdisciplinary courses and programs that explicitly promote the incorporation of environmental sciences into the One Health framework.

Foster Collaboration: Strengthen connections between veterinary, plant, and environmental sciences, using existing platforms to facilitate transdisciplinary research.

Aid Funding Opportunities: Advocate for large-scale funding to support ambitious, integrated projects addressing One Health challenges.

By addressing these gaps and leveraging its strengths, SLU can position itself as a global leader in advancing the environmental dimension of One Health, contributing innovative solutions to critical global health and sustainability challenges.

The report was initiated and funded through a call launched in 2024 by SLU Future One Health for researchers to write reports on One Health and the environment. As the environmental aspect of One Health is more recent, and less specified, than human/animal health, there was a need to concretise SLU’s focus and work within this field. Two reports were written on previous and current SLU research in environmental issues linked to One Health, and future perspectives of this research (both within SLU and on a global scale). The aim of these reports are to identify gaps, challenges, and opportunities for enhancing SLU's contribution to the environmental parts of One Health. 

Links

Read the first report in the series on One Health and the environment: 
Perspectives on One Health and the environment at SLU. A conceptually based overview and strategies for the future by Patrik Baard, SLU Future One Health reports, number 3, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2025.