UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced the establishment of the One Health Poultry Hub – one of 12 new global research hubs.
Because population growth is driving global demand for safe, low cost poultry meat and eggs, but rapid intensification creates conditions for poultry diseases, this hub will explore how to meet rising demand while minimizing the risk to public health, UKRI stated.
The hub will study how intensification increases risks of infectious diseases and also antimicrobial resistance. It will also look at why certain processes and behaviors are risky and establish when and where to test interventions for disease control. Working with strong networks of local, regional and global stakeholders, the evidence generated by those studies will be put to immediate use.
The Royal Veterinary College will be the lead organization involved with the hub, and it have a heavy geographical focus on the South Central Asian and Southeast Asian regions.
The One Health Poultry Hub is one of 12 new global research hubs announced recently by UKRI. According to UKRI, the 12 hubs over the next five years will work with governments, international agencies, non-governmental organizations and community groups in developing countries to provide creative and sustainable solutions to help make the world safer, healthier and more prosperous.
These new UKRI global research hubs are funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) which U.K. research at the heart of efforts to tackle the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The hubs will focus on some of the world’s greatest challenges from improving human health and promoting gender equality and social justice to fortifying ecological systems and biodiversity on land and sea, generating agricultural sustainability and fostering greater resilience to natural disasters.
Other hubs being created include:
- Accelerating Achievement for Africa's Adolescents Hub
- Accountability for Informal Urban Equity Hub
- Action Against Stunting Hub
- Gender, Justice and Security Hub
- Living Deltas Hub
- One Ocean Hub
- South Asian Nitrogen Hub
- South-South Migration, Inequality and Development Hub
- Trade, Development and the Environment Hub
- Urban Disaster Risk Hub
- Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub
