CHRC and UÉ workshop brought together international experts on animal health/human health interconnections from the perspective of the "One Health" paradigm
On December 15 and 16, the University of Évora and the CHRC promoted (within the scope of the CHRC's Call “Financial and logistic support to the organization of training activities”) the International Workshop “My Best Friend, My Surrogate: Pets as Sentinels of Human Health”, with the aim of acting as a forum for exchanging ideas on the challenges and opportunities of using companion animals (lato sensu) as sentinels, predictors and promoters of human health.
Against the backdrop of the "One Health" paradigm, the first day was occupied with a wide range of thematic panels covering cancer (“Climbing into the ocean: Pets, humans and cancer”), indoor exposure to environmental contaminants (“The gift that keeps on giving: Pets as sentinels of human exposure”), exposure to contaminants and parasites in an outdoor environment (“The great outdoors: Sentinels and parasites at work”) and the ability to predict disease and promote health (“Mirror, mirror on the Wall: Pets as forecasters and promoters”).
The panels began with keynotes by leading experts in the field, complemented by guest speakers and submitted communications by Veterinarians, Medical Doctors, Parasitologists, Environmental Scientists (Biologists and Chemists), and Psychomotor Therapists, from Europe (Belgium, Danmark, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden), Australia, Brazil, Japan and United States.
The second day was entirely dedicated to reflection with a "Living Lab" on using the "One Health" paradigm as the linchpin of human/pet environmental exposure. Using an adapted Delphi Technique, a set of fixed questions were initially put to small, randomly distributed groups (Speed-Science-Debating) who, in a self-managed way, would have to come up with answers while walking freely around the city of Évora. After two interpolations of these groups, a general assembly was held in which the individual conclusions were debated between peers.
The conclusion was that there would be grounds for establishing a consortium and drawing up a “Consensus Statement”, based on the minutes of the debate held at the General Assembly, and to be submitted to a high-profile magazine. Another General Assembly was scheduled for January.
It was also decided that everyone present could bring other experts to the consortium who could contribute to it, as well as accept anyone who wanted to join it, even if they hadn't taken part in the work on the second day.