One Health

Our node provides a collaborative forum for research on zoonotic and other infectious diseases, their impacts on human and animal health and their social, ecological and environmental determinants

We bring together experts in veterinary epidemiology, public health, microbiology, social sciences, ecology and environmental sciences to:

  1. Conduct research on social and ecological determinants of zoonotic and other diseases
  2. Investigate drivers of emerging and AMR infections and their impact on humans, animals and food
  3. Develop measures for preventing and predicting emerging zoonoses and their impacts
  4. Advance surveillance and veterinary epidemiology training in Australia and globally
We acknowledge and thank The Dr Aubrey Crawley Research Support Grants (as established by his daughters Doreen Elizabeth and Margaret Florence Crawley) for their generous support of our One Health Node research.
Professor Ben Marais, Sydney ID

One Health Node Leadership

Sydney ID's One Health Node Leader,  Dr Michael Walsh is a landscape epidemiologist. Combining methods from spatial and infectious disease epidemiology with applications of biogeography, community ecology, and macroecology to employ transdisciplinary One Health approaches to zoonosis inference, prediction, surveillance, and prevention. Michael is particularly interested in the ways in which interactions between wildlife, domesticated animals, and humans in anthropogenic landscapes facilitate pathogen spillover from primary reservoir hosts to novel hosts.

Prof Zadoks’ interests include the use of molecular epidemiology to understand sources and transmission routes of bacterial infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance across host species, and the development of disease control programmes to support human and animal health and food security.

Our One Health Node Leader Kate Bosward is a veterinary microbiologist researching the pathogenesis and control of infectious diseases of animals especially those considered zoonotic. She has a particular interest in Coxiella burnetii, coxiellosis in animals and Q fever in humans. Other research projects have been in mastitis in dairy cattle (particularly due to Mycoplasma spp. and Streptococcus agalactiae) and antimicrobial resistance in animals.


Veterinary epidemiology

Associate Professor Navneet Dhand is a leader in veterinary epidemiology and One Health initiatives at the University of Sydney.  He devotes his time to leading exciting global One Health initiatives, including development of veterinary epidemiology training programs as well as major collaborative animal and human health research projects in the Asia-Pacific region.  In 2019 he signed an agreement with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to develop technical guidelines for in-service applied veterinary epidemiology training, vital for diagnosing, preventing and controlling infectious diseases. The guidelines will enable the FAO member countries to establish new programs in epidemiology training and to strengthen the existing ones.