One Health Seminar: Microbiome Stewardship and One Health

Kieran C. O’Doherty is professor in the department of psychology at the University of Guelph, where he directs the Discourse, Science, Publics research Group. His research focuses on the social and ethical implications of science and technology. In this context, he has published on such topics as data governance, vaccines, human tissue biobanks, salmon genomics, and genetic testing.

Microbiomes are essential for human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health. Despite widespread recognition of the importance of microbiomes, there is little attention to monitoring and safeguarding microbial ecologies on policy levels. Evidence is accumulating that microbiomes are deteriorating owing to practices at societal levels, such as pesticide use in agriculture, air and water pollution, and overuse of antibiotics. Potential policy on these issues would cross multiple policy domains, such as public health, environment, agriculture and more. What is needed is a concept that can act as a foundation for safeguarding microbial ecologies for healthy people, animals, and environments across diverse policy domains. In this presentation, Kieran introduce the notion of microbiome stewardship to serve in this capacity. He will also examine challenges to be addressed and steps to take toward developing meaningful microbiome stewardship.

Register to attend online or in-person.