Livestock production plays a major role in Southeast Asia as it provides food, employment and income. The demand for livestock products is expected to continue to grow rapidly due to population growth and increase in demand as affected by prevailing lifestyles. With the growing livestock industry in the region comes the challenges of efficiently managing it to ensure sustainable development. The livestock sector in the region faces considerable wide-ranging challenges that encompass the economic, social, and environmental components of livestock production. OneHealth/EcoHealth is a holistic approach to health that integrates the various dimensions concerning humans, animals, and the environment as one. Given that most of the challenges in the livestock sector tend to be interrelated, this approach provides for inclusivity among humans, animals, and the environment that would be essential in attaining sustainable agriculture and efficient livestock management.
The Workshop on Applications of OneHealth/EcoHealth Approach Towards Sustainable Livestock Production in Southeast Asiawas held last 25 October 2018 at Los Baños, Laguna, and jointly organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) through SESAM. The whole-day workshop started through SEARCA’s Agriculture and Development Seminar Series (ADSS) where Dr. Flavie Goutard, a veterinary epidemiologist and coordinator of the GREASE Network CIRAD-Thailand, gave an overview on OneHealth and EcoHealth frameworks as well as its theories and practices. It was followed by ILRI’s (International Livestock Research Institute-Vietnam) Dr. Hung Nguyen as he provided a lecture on the contributions of livestock research to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Southeast Asia. Afterwards, several case studies on the current applications of OneHealth and EcoHealth frameworks in the Philippines were delivered by Dr. Loinda R. Baldrias from the College of Veterinarian Medicine-UPLB, Dr. Emelinda L. Lopez from Bureau of Animal Industry-Department of Agriculture, Dr. Mary Grace B. Dacuma from the Institute of Biological Science-UPLB, and Dr. Rico C. Ancog, Professor, School of Environmental Science and Management-UPLB.
During the afternoon session, Dr. Ancog spearheaded the workshop proper to come up with a project proposal that would operationalize the OneHealth/EcoHealth approach and incorporate it across different livestock farming systems in the Philippines. Professors, researchers, graduate students, and representatives from government and non-government organizations engaged in the promotion of sustainable agriculture/livestock sector in the Philippines attended the workshop to discuss the gaps and challenges in the livestock sector in the Philippines as well as its potential solutions. This exchange of ideas among livestock experts will serve as a starting point for research projects focusing on OneHealth/EcoHealth management approaches towards sustainable livestock farming in the Philippines and its neighboring countries in Southeast Asia (Louie Paolo D. Leynes).
