Balkan One Health Network and the Institute for Health and Food Safety Zenica will host the 1st Regional “One Health” Conference on June 15, it was confirmed after a series of preparatory meetings of the conference’s organizing committee.
“One Health” is a multidisciplinary approach that involves the cooperation of experts from different sectors in the field of science, government, society and religion, at all levels (local, national, regional and global), to achieve optimal health and well-being of all people, animals and their common environment. The One Health approach supports and promotes sustainable development, and pursues all the sustainable development goals set out in the United Nations SDG 2030 Agenda.
Therefore, the One Health approach emphasizes that optimal human health can only be achieved if both animal health and environmental health are taken into account at the same time.
Conceptually, the One Health approach in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Balkans is currently implemented only at the Zenica Institute for Health and Food Safety, where the work of three institutes, the Institute of Public Health, the Veterinary Institute and the Institute for Plant Protection, is combined under one roof. Thus, together doctors, veterinarians and plant experts monitor the health status of the “cycle”, and examples of several diseases that have passed from animals to humans (zoonoses), confirm the need for joint action.
Recognizing the need for this type of cooperation, INZ initiated networking activities with similar organizations in the Western Balkans region, which resulted in the formation of the regional network “Balkan One Health Network – BOHN”. Members of this regional network, in addition to INZ, are the Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Scientific Veterinary Institute “Novi Sad”, Institute of Public Health of the Republic of North Macedonia Skopje, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Skopje, Institute of Public Health of Montenegro Podgorica, and the Specialist Veterinary Laboratory of Montenegro.
The topic of the first conference will be “One Health Approach Perspectives in the Western Balkans Region”, and as confirmed by the initiator of the conference, Rusmir Goletic, an expert associate at INZ, the participation of fourteen eminent speakers from the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina has been confirmed.
The conference is planned in the so-called hybrid model, a combination of online and “live” lectures and representatives of all institutions and organizations that are considered “stakeholders” in the “One Health” process will be invited to Zenica. These are, among others, representatives of embassies, various levels of government, state institutions, universities, institutes, professional chambers, hospitals and clinics, students, as well as representatives of other professional institutions from BiH and the region.
BOHN & INZ