The One Health Aotearoa Management Group had a paper published in the open access journal One Health Outlook last month entitled, One Health Aotearoa: a transdisciplinary initiative to improve human, animal and environmental health in New Zealand. This perspective piece outlines the OHA story thus far and how a transdisciplinary approach is particularly pertinent to the situation…

Our 5th One Health Aotearoa Symposium was held at the University of Otago Wellington on 10-11 December 2019, and brought together researchers of diverse backgrounds to discuss infectious diseases and other health hazards affecting humans, animals and the environment. A focus of One Health Aotearoa is to break down silos and barriers to facilitate trans-disciplinary research.…

OHA investigator Shahista Nisa from Massey University’s Infectious Diseases Research Centre (IDReC) has been in a New Zealand Herald article on leptospirosis. Dr Nisa is currently leading a study to investigate the emerging sources and pathways for leptospirosis, with the aim to measure the severity of the disease in New Zealanders, how long it lasts…

Tracking the sources of freshwater contamination will soon be a lot quicker and more accurate with the completion of successful field trials of a new DNA-based tracer technology. A team led by ESR scientist Dr Liping Pang has developed DNA tracers that have undergone successful field trials in groundwater, surface water and soil. Dr Pang,…

One Health Aotearoa Co-director Professor David Murdoch has written an article for Newsroom about the One Health Aotearoa alliance and our research priorities to tackle complex health challenges in New Zealand, including the overuse of antibiotics, threats to freshwater quality and emerging infectious diseases. Read the article: Three monumental challenges to our health

This week is the World Health Organisation’s Antibiotic Resistance Awareness Week,and it’s a good opportunity to think about the impact of ‘super bugs’ on the health of New Zealand communities. ESR tracks many microorganisms and one particularly nasty family of super bugs is currently showing an increase. Super bugs are typically resistant to nearly all…

Our spring 2019 newsletter includes information about our 5th symposium next month, profiles VetSouth and VetNZ director Mark Bryan, and provides information about a PhD opportunity currently available at Massey University on leptospirosis with Associate Professor Jackie Benschop. View the One Health Aotearoa Spring 2019 newsletter.

OHA investigator and management group member Dr Rob Lake was awarded the Lifetime Contribution to Science Award for his body of work in the foodborne illness area at the Science New Zealand National Awards last week. Dr Lake was honoured for his 30-year contribution to the field of food safety. The award recognises the impact…

The burden of human leptospirosis in New Zealand was discussed at a forum in Wellington last week as part of a Massey University-led nationwide case-control study to identify risk factors. A common workplace hazard in the agricultural sector, the disease can cause disease and death in animals, and can transfer to humans causing hospital admissions…

There’s just six weeks until the 5th One Health Aotearoa Symposium in Wellington on 10-11 December. The OHA Symposium Organising Committee is excited to release the preliminary programme which covers the big One Health issues affecting New Zealand and further afield. The symposium features nine sessions including a poster session on the evening of 10 December.…