2018 One Health Aotearoa Symposium

Our fourth symposium was held on  12–13 December 2018 in Wellington.

The aim of the One Health Aotearoa symposiums is to bring together infectious diseases scientists and professionals from the fields of human, animal and environmental health in order to address priority One Health issues.

The symposium included sessions on emerging infectious diseases, mahinga kai and mātauranga Māori, water quality, One Health economics and antimicrobial resistance.

The four plenary speakers were Alison Mather (Quadram, UK), Colleen Lau (Australian National University), Garth Harmsworth (Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research) and Ross Thompson (University of Canberra).

The 4th OHA Symposium programme

Plenary speakers

Dr Alison Mather

Research Leader, Quadram Institute, United Kingdom

Alison is an epidemiologist who studies the evolution, origins and transmission of bacteria between different host populations, using a combination of approaches from epidemiology, ecology and genomics. Her particular research focus is on bacteria that are resistant to antimicrobial drugs, and in understanding the relative contributions of animals, humans, the environment and food to the overall burden of bacterial disease and antimicrobial resistance.

Alison is a Research Leader at Quadram Institute Bioscience in Norwich, UK and a Food Standards Agency Fellow.

Professor Ross Thompson

Chair of Water Science, Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Australia
Ross is a freshwater ecologist with interests in the study of biodiversity and the restoration of landscapes. His fundamental research is in food web ecology; seeking the rules that determine how natural communities assemble and persist. His applied research addresses the ways in which food webs can be influenced by anthropogenic factors including urbanisation, land clearance, pharmaceutical contamination, river flow diversion and restoration, and invasion. He has an active research program on aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem function in urban and rural landscapes.

Ross has published more than 100 papers, 10 book chapters and more than 200 scientific reports. He sits on the Australian Research Council College of Experts and has recently stepped down from the New Zealand Marsden Panel. His work has strong links to government and industry, and Ross sits on a number of senior technical advisory panels for local, state and federal research programs.

Dr Colleen Lau

NHMRC Fellow, Department of Global Health, Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, Australia

Colleen is a clinician with expertise in travel medicine and tropical medicine. Her research interests include infectious disease epidemiology, emerging infectious diseases, environmental health, spatial epidemiology, travel vaccinations, malaria prophylaxis, tropical medicine, and the impact of global environmental change on infectious diseases.

Colleen has a particular interest in the eco-epidemiology of leptospirosis, and the impact of global environmental change (including climate change, flooding, population growth, urbanisation, agricultural intensification, and biodiversity loss) on the transmission dynamics of this disease. Her work has included eco-epidemiology studies and risk mapping of leptospirosis in American Samoa, Fiji, and Queensland.  She was also engaged as a WHO consultant to help develop Fiji’s National Guidelines for Diagnosis and Management of Leptospirosis.

Another special research interest is lymphatic filariasis elimination in the Pacific Islands, to determine the most effective strategies for managing the endgame of the global disease elimination program. Colleen is currently leading an operational research project on lymphatic filariasis elimination in Samoa, in collaboration with the Taskforce for Global Health, CDC Atlanta, and the Samoa Ministry of Health.

Garth Harmsworth

(Te Arawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Raukawa)
Senior Environmental Scientist, Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Garth’s background is in land resource mapping and assessment, GIS applications and environmental databases, and indigenous values and knowledge research.

Garth is a key researcher in designing and using integrated knowledge systems, frameworks, and models for decision-making, planning and policy, bridging mātauranga Māori and western science, working with Māori communities and organisations, central and local government organisations, building Māori research capability and capacity, and has extensive experience and skills in environmental planning and resource management across Aotearoa-New Zealand and internationally.

Garth has led over 50 Māori/science projects and consultancies, presented over 100 conference and workshop presentations, and authored about 100 refereed publications.

OHA Symposium venue

The 4th One Health Aotearoa Symposium was held at:

Nordmeyer Theatre
University of Otago, Wellington
23 Mein Street
Newtown, Wellington

One Health Aotearoa Symposium sponsors

The 4th One Health Aotearoa was proudly sponsored by:

• University of Otago
• Massey University
• Institute of Environmental Science and Research
• New Zealand Food Safety Science and Research Centre
• New Zealand Veterinary Association
• NZVA Food Safety, Animal Welfare and Biosecurity Branch

One Health Aotearoa Symposium archives

Visit the 3rd One Health Aotearoa Symposium presentations archive
Visit the 2nd One Health Aotearoa Symposium presentations archive