Enhancing Livestock Production and Food Safety Through a One Health Approach in Resource Poor Settings

About this Research Topic

Background

The global production and consumption of livestock products has steadily increased in the last few decades and is expected to continue. Meanwhile, safety concerns regarding human and animal disease associated with livestock products are increasing. Livestock production and food safety are inextricably linked and trade-offs between Livestock for Nutrition (L4N), Food Borne Diseases (FBD) and nutritional illnesses (NCDs) exist. Interventions at various scales have been addressing challenges in animal food production including issues related to climate change, changing consumer preferences, animal welfare, the use of antimicrobials, and sustainable animal production systems.
Based on the assumption that healthy animals provide safer food and a better economy, this Research Topic intends to gather a set of studies and analyses on the livestock production-food safety nexus in several resource limited settings, building on the conceptual framework of One Health, by highlighting the premise that animal health is important to human health and well-being. One Health can serve as an approach to achieve better livelihoods of livestock dependent populations in the frame of the different Sustainable Development Goals.

Comprehensive, inclusive One Health approaches are needed in resource poor settings in Africa, Asia and the Americas, to mitigate the risks originating from tradeoffs between animal production, the animal product value chain and food safety. A One Health approach promotes collaboration between disciplines and sectors in terms of shared knowledge and resources that yield a societal added value (health, economy, sustainable environment). This is signified by an outcome which is not achievable if each sector and discipline works in silo. A One Health approach is thus needed to manage livelihoods of livestock dependent populations, food safety and to understand the drivers and determinants for the emergence and persistence of human, animal and environmental threats. Healthier animals lead to increases in production, mitigation of zoonotic infections and reduction in antimicrobial residues, as well as slow the development of antibiotic resistance. More evidence is needed to establish mechanisms of disease transmission and effects of animal production challenges on well-being and livelihoods.

To achieve the best possible wealth and health for communities, animals and the environment, transdisciplinary, multidimensional, multi-sectoral, including transboundary harmonization and involvement of health and non-health sectors are needed.

This Research Topic is seeking Reviews and Original Research that will contribute to :
- Conceptualizing the One Health approach in livestock production and food safety
- Analyzing livestock production and food safety in the context of SDGs
- Exploring innovative approaches for safer food production, healthier animals and better well-being of communities and animal welfare.
- Economic aspects influencing animal sourced food safety
- Social mobilization and incentive based animal production and safety
- Poverty induced threats to food safety and health
- New approaches to safeguard the health of production animals: "Healthy animals, Healthy food and Wealth"
- Challenges of AMR development of pathogens in the animal product chain
- Animal sourced food processing technologies for pathogen reduction

Keywords: zoonotic diseases, food safety, LMICs, Livestock, diseases

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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