Bruno González Zorn, Chair of the Una Europa Self Steering Committee for the One Health Focus Area

"Una Europa is Making a Decisive Contribution to Advancing the One Health Approach for Planetary Health"

 

 Cristina Saura.  © J. de Miguel, Tribuna Complutense
Twenty-five years ago, Bruno González Zorn, a Veterinary Science graduate, focused his doctoral thesis on the study of listeriosis—a zoonotic bacterium that is easily detectable in the environment and transmissible between humans and animals. This marked his academic entry into a pioneering, multidisciplinary, and global approach to his profession, which he has cultivated ever since—especially after his three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Pasteur Institute. This approach, now widely recognised by the scientific community, was later named One Health. Although it remains unfamiliar to many, One Health is rapidly evolving and transforming how governments, institutions, organisations, and international industries work to address and care for planetary health.

In 2004, he returned to Spain and to the UCM (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), thanks to a Ramón y Cajal research contract aimed at attracting top talent. From the beginning, he focused on furthering this line of research. “One of the first European projects we secured and coordinated was based on collaboration between European doctors and veterinarians. Even back then, 20 years ago, we were working on One Health. Today, the concept is much broader and includes collaboration between all kinds of specialities, not just those in healthcare.”

Today, microbiologist González Zorn is a Professor of Animal Health and heads the Antimicrobial Resistance Unit (ARU) at the Complutense. An international authority on the subject, he has been advising the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2021. He has become one of the main drivers of the One Health approach in international forums and summits and is a leading academic voice advancing this innovative approach, based on the complete interconnection and interdependence between human health, animal health, and environmental health. “Closely related to this is the issue of antibiotic resistance, which we could consider one of the flagship topics of the One Health approach, and I emphasise its critical importance whenever I have the chance,” he explains.

González Zorn has also participated, since its creation, in the group of expert researchers in One Health that Una Europa formed in 2021, and since January 2024 he has chaired this group. "It is an honour to chair One Health in Una Europa, taking over from professors Olli Peltoniemi (University of Helsinki) and Alessandra Scagliarini (Università di Bologna), who have preceded me. This committee has leading scientists from the eleven campuses that make up our alliance, which gives it a very high level. This has positioned us as interlocutors of the academic and scientific world with the main international actors, such as those who form the famous quadripartite in favour of the One Health strategy (composed of WHO, FAO, UNEP and WOAH) instituted in 2022".

Members of the Una Europa One Health Self Steering Committee at the alliance General Assembly (Zurich, June 2024)

Thus, last September Bruno González Zorn spoke at the 8th One Health World Congress, held in South Africa, to present the work and ideas of Una Europa in this area, one of the six on which the alliance has decided to focus its joint work. Recognised experts from other universities in the alliance were also present.

- Professor, November 3 has been established as the "World One Health Day". How did the current momentum of interest and relevance in this conceptual framework come about?

- It is not such a recent approach in the scientific community. Many of us researchers have been defending it for a couple of decades. In Spain there is a notable boost with the approval, in 2014, of the National Plan to Combat Antibiotic Resistance, which coincides with a similar campaign by the World Health Organisation. But it is true that the expansion and recognition of One Health came hand in hand with the brutal phenomenon of the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020. It acted as a global call to the urgent need to understand planetary health as a set of interdependent parts. It has forced us to react and be better prepared when other emergencies arrive, which, I fear, will inevitably come.

- At least on the surface, decisions and policies are made between politicians and international organisations. How are we in academia influencing and collaborating in the development and advancement of this globalised interconnectedness approach?

- More than you would think, and in a very decisive way. The quadripartite is listening to us and counting on us, more and more. The EU and the Health ministries consult us. And I must say that, as a European alliance of leading research universities, Una Europa has positioned itself as a voice in the scientific and academic sphere, sought after and respected. We are invited to international forums and meetings, we are asked to collaborate and our expertise is valued. One of our main contributions in this field has been to broaden its spectrum, its transversality, demonstrating the importance of the contribution of the social sciences to One Health, traditionally restricted to the sum of the health and environmental fields. Sociologists, psychologists, economists and communicators - among many other specialties - are vital in building this 360° approach to health.

- What plans and goals has the One Health Self Steering Committee of Una Europa set for the coming years?

- They are many, proactive and ambitious, as is the group of experts that make up this international group of scientists; invaluable and enthusiastic people with whom it is a delight to collaborate. The area of One Health is relevant within Una Europa because of its strategic importance for the future of our species, indeed of our planet. And the primary objective of the university, of the Academy with capital letters, is none other than to contribute to the development and advancement of our societies. The last General Assembly of our alliance, held in Zurich last June, had One Health as its thematic focus, with lively debates and lectures by speakers from many countries. We are now working on some joint research projects with African universities, launched from the Una Europa seed funding initiative, and we have just joined all the universities in the alliance to jointly request a European COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action, a project that would be very important for our future collaboration. On the other hand, we have a series of open and free webinars in collaboration with MDS (the next one, on the relationship between humans and companion animals and its impact from a One Health perspective, will take place next November 23), which will soon be opened to other collaborations with the private sector, and every year we organise a One Health Summer School with students and teachers from all over Europe. We are also making progress in the design of a training project that is going to be unique, of the highest quality, unprecedented. We want to have an impact on society and for this we are going to collaborate in the best possible preparation of all types of professionals with regard to the One Health approach.

- Are you an advocate of public-private, institutional-business partnerships?

- I am, without reservation. The field in which I work, moreover, requires it. Cooperation between scientists, institutions, universities, organisations, governments, industries from the five continents is a necessity and an essential requirement. I will always promote everything that means joining forces, sharing knowledge and working in complementarity with each other.

Read this interview in Spanish here.

 

8th One Health World Congress 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa

Una Europa One Health Summer School (KU Leuven, 2023)

Professors González Zorn and Alessandra Scagliarini (Università di Bologna)

At one of the laboratories of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the UCM