Keynote presentation by Dirk Pfeiffer, Chow Tak Fung Professor of One Health and Director of the Centre for Applied One Health Research and Policy Advice, City University of Hong Kong. Delivered on 7 February 2024 on the first day of the Final Hub Meeting of the GCRF One Health Poultry Hub.

1. One Health for Tackling Real-World
Complex Challenges
Dirk U. Pfeiffer
Chow Tak Fung Chair Professor of One Health, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, PR China
Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, United Kingdom
Adjunct Professor at China Animal Health and Epidemiology Centre, Qingdao, PR China
[QS] World University
Rankings 2023
Veterinary Science
#1
[QS] World University
Rankings 2024
#70
UKRI-GCRF
One Health Poultry Hub
Final Hub Meeting,
New Delhi, India
February 7 - 9, 2024

2. One Health

3. From: Asian Development Bank

4. From: Nossal Institute of Global Health, University of Melbourne

5. Knowledge

6. How do we know that we know?
• epistemology - the philosophy of knowledge
• usually based on western perspective
• different knowledge cultures (Brown et al 2005)
• individual
• local
• specialised
• strategic
• holistic

7. Co-Production of Knowledge and
Interdisciplinarity
• social, economic and cultural factors form environments within which
biological processes take place
• design of effective interventions needs to see biological and social
realm as continuum
• need some understanding of what different scientific disciplines have
to offer and in which way they see the world
• recognize boundaries of personal scientific expertise
• beware of difference between scientific evidence
and personal opinion

8. Systems Thinking

10. Spread of Infectious Pathogens in Food Systems in South, South-East
and East Asia

11. Antibiotic
Residue
Pathways in
Ecosystems

12. System Complexity

13. System Complexity Dynamics
• give rise to emergent properties
which are very difficult or even
impossible to predict without
modelling underlying complex
system
• pathogen emergence
• we unfortunately still base science
primarily on reductionistic approach
• need interdisciplinarity science
• need global perspective

15. Differences between Living Generations

16. Disconnection from
Nature: Expanding our
understanding of
Human–Nature
Relations
Beery, Thomas, Anton Stahl Olafsson, Sandra Gentin, Megan Maurer, Sanna
Stålhammar, Christian Albert, Claudia Bieling, et al. "Disconnection from Nature:
Expanding Our Understanding of Human–Nature Relations." People and Nature n/a,
no. n/a. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10451.
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pan3.10451.

17. East and West – South and North

18. Sustainability, Biodiversity and
Environmental Health

20. Greenhouse Gas
Emissions across
Food
Supply Chain

21. Nature’s Contributions to People
Christie, M., Martín-López, B., Church, A. et al. Understanding the diversity of values of “Nature’s contributions to people”: insights from the
IPBES Assessment of Europe and Central Asia. Sustain Sci 14, 1267–1282 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00716-6

22. United Nations
Sustainable
Development Goals
The illustration above is free to use under the Creative Commons license CC BY-ND 3.0. You are free to share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or
format. Click on image to download EPS file. Credit: Azote for Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University CC BY-ND 3.0.

23. Food System Transformation

24. Diverse Livestock
Production Systems

25. Diagnosing the performance of food systems to increase accountability toward healthy diets and environmental sustainability
Herforth A, Bellows AL, Marshall Q, McLaren R, Beal T, et al. (2022) Diagnosing the performance of food systems to increase accountability toward
healthy diets and environmental sustainability. PLOS ONE 17(7): e0270712. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270712

27. From: Bock, A.K.,
Krzysztofowicz, M.,
Rudkin, J. and
Winthagen, V. Farmers
of the Future. EUR
30464 EN, Publications
Office of the European
Union, Luxembourg,
2020, ISBN 978-92-76-
26332-6,
doi:10.2760/680650,
JRC122308

28. • One Health interdisciplinary
approach
• Equally weighted quantitative and
qualitative research
• Power: replication of research and
analyses across MANY study sites
• Local, regional and global
stakeholders
• Capacity building, equitable
partnerships and impact
• How does intensification increase risk?
• What systems/behaviours are most risky?
• What are the best long-term solutions for safe
and secure poultry production?
E
Pathogens
Chickens
Humans
Environment
Framework of
One Health Poultry Hub
Project
Research Questions