University of Kentucky forms initiative to promote One Health movement

The University of Kentucky has launched the One Health Center Initiative to help promote its One Health movement. One Health is an interdisciplinary research collaboration that seeks to protect the state’s residents, animals, and environment. The initiative notes connections between all living beings and the environment and that protecting the health and safety of one of these categories is helping to protect the health and safety of them all.

According to an article on the University of Kentucky’s website, S. Reddy Palli, Ph.D., who is the chair of the Department of Entomology at Martin-Gatton CAFE, a Bill Gatton Foundation Distinguished Professor, and the state entomologist, was quoted as saying of the initiative, “One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. We want to be a leader in educating people about the significance of One Health and its impact on everyone’s daily life.”

On the One Health webpage, it is described as an “integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems,” and that it “recognizes the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are intricately linked and interdependent.”

The multifaceted approach to the collaborative efforts of One Health include new courses for undergraduate and graduate students and a campus-wide student organization to help bolster the efforts, as well. In the fall, the graduate course One Health in Action will be offered online and in person, and in 2026 an undergraduate introductory course as well as a certificate program for undergrads and graduate students will be implemented.

The multidisciplinary effort will see participation from students, faculty, and staff from across various University of Kentucky departments and from state agencies to conduct research and studies and to synthesize the data collected. Involved entities include the UK Colleges of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing,  and Pharmacy, and the Cooperative Extension Service.

Among the projects that are being conducted as part of One Health are the surveillance of ticks and mosquitos throughout the state by the UK Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention; research by Yosra Helmy, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Veterinary Science and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the Markey Cancer Center to develop antibiotics and therapeutics for animals and humans; the research of Feng Li, D.V.M., Ph.D., a professor in the UK Department of Veterinary Science, that will look at enveloped RNA viruses in humans and livestock; and the work of Brian Stevenson, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Entomology and the UK College of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, to identify novel regulatory networks in Borrelia burgdorferi.

Palli said, “We believe our college has one of the strongest extension programs in the nation and that the One Health Initiative at UK is uniquely positioned to grow. We welcome everyone interested in One Health to join our collaborative effort and take advantage of all that we have to offer.”

For more information about the University of Kentucky, visit the school’s website.