USask’s One Health research tackles global health threats with a multidisciplinary approach and by leveraging a deep pool of expertise.
One Health addresses the interconnectedness between human, animal, and environmental health, with an understanding that one cannot progress at the cost of others. Respecting these intersections, the University of Saskatchewan’s (USask) One Health Signature Area of Research is working to combat global health threats at all scales through proactive, innovative, and transdisciplinary approaches. Combining expertise and resources from human and veterinary medicine, environmental sciences, and agriculture, USask is driving responses to emerging health threats that the world needs.
USask is taking a collaborative approach to align its expertise and ensure preparedness in the face of future infectious diseases. This process combines surveillance, the investigation of emerging human and animal pathogens, the development of diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines, and the study of the underlying ecological and social determinants of health and disease. Building capacity by training students in critical infrastructure that’s housed at USask, such as its state-of-the-art high-containment laboratories, is an important deliverable of this work.
The research the world needs
The One Health Signature Area of Research investigates the impacts of environmental contaminants, biodiversity loss, permafrost thaw, and extreme weather events on the health of ecosystems, animals, and human communities. This Signature Area recognizes the impact of land-use change and the effects of the shifting climate on the emergence of infectious diseases. USask experts are exploring the impact of these phenomena using interdisciplinary approaches.
The One Health Signature Area of Research also embraces the advantages that come from connections between humans, animals, and the environment. These include the positive impacts of companion and therapy animals, the wisdom of Indigenous ways of knowing and relating to the land and animals, and the importance of local and global food security.
Notable Areas of Research
- Surveillance, diagnosis, drugs, and vaccines for existing and emerging infectious diseases
- Antimicrobial and antiparasitic resistance
- Risks as well as benefits at the animal/human/environmental interface
- Impacts of contaminants, biodiversity loss, and climate change on the health of ecosystems, humans, and animals
- Ecological and social determinants of health
Learn more at research.usask.ca.