One Health Observatories—The Example of Southeast Asia

Definition

One Health Observatories operationalize the One Health approach. The One Health Joint Plan of Action drafted by the Quadripartite (WHO, FAO, WOAH, and UNEP) insists on the need to strengthen scientific evidence-based knowledge and its translation into data for evidence, technical tools, protocols, guidelines, and information and surveillance systems for the effective implementation of One Health at all levels. One Health Observatories are crucial for this task. Drawing from the experience of the existing One Health Observatory in Thailand—a unique, on-the-ground initiative—we outline the key features of this model for potential replication in other regions or countries. Such observatories play a critical role in advancing ecosystem-based innovations and locally adapted solutions, which are necessary to improve the prevention of disease transmission at the interface between human, animal, and ecosystem health.

1. Introduction

The history of observatories as organised structures starts with astronomical observatories and their development from the XVth century. Astronomical observatories bring together experimental techniques and practices from laboratories and adapt them to the observatory and field tradition, contributing to the transfer of practices [1,2].

Different types of observatories have been developed to improve the collection, coordination, and sharing of information on various scientific topics. For instance, National Museums of Natural History gather collections of flora, fauna, minerals, and fossils and provide essential information on present and past biological diversity [3]. More recently, at the international level, the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) has been created as a “global network of researchers dedicated to improving the acquisition, coordination, and delivery of biodiversity information at the global, regional, and national levels”. As stated in its latest strategic plan, “data gathered through biodiversity monitoring are essential inputs into the science of detecting change in different dimensions of biodiversity, from genes to ecosystems. Trends in the gains and losses of these different dimensions of biodiversity are poorly estimated for most regions and not linked to their causes” [4]. GEO BON connects the national and regional Biodiversity Observation Networks as well as thematic networks (marine, freshwater, soil, or biomolecular biodiversity) to understand how biodiversity is changing and to generate indicators used by decision-makers to estimate progress towards the international goals and targets for biodiversity. NEON (the US National Ecological Observatory Network), supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, is a continental-scale observation facility collecting long-term open-access ecological data to better understand the complexities of the Earth’s ecosystems and how they are changing. It is driven mainly by the scientific community to address a “very broadly based, general research question—what is the pace and nature of biological change” [5], depending on human actions with regional, national, or global causes or effects. NEON is designed to allow the scientific community to address, on a regional or continental scale, the major areas in environmental sciences considered as grand challenges by the National Research Council because they represent environmental issues of importance to humankind [6]. They concern biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles, climate change, ecology, and evolution of infectious diseases, invasive species, and land and habitat use. NEON provides open data, samples, and infrastructure to understand changing ecosystems over a period of 30 years [7]. From its inception, NEON has been expected to allow for the assessment of potential ecosystem responses to environmental changes and to forecast the effects of alternative environmental policies and actions.

These existing networks of observatories targeting the understanding of the various dimensions of environmental changes have inspired the creation of HealthDEEP (Health, Disease Ecology, Environment, and Policy), an international research unit under the auspices of CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), Mahidol University, and Kasetsart University, based in Thailand, Bangkok, and Kanchanaburi. HealthDEEP constitutes a model of One Health Observatory integrated into the scientific and institutional international and regional landscapes.

2. What Are One Health Observatories?

As we have seen, different types of environmental observatories already exist, working at different scales. We may also mention health observatories such as the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies hosted by the WHO, which provides Europe’s health policy-makers and their advisors with the evidence they need to design and implement the best possible policies for their countries.

In 2023, the international project Capacitating One Health in Eastern and Southern Africa, COHESA [8], designed to provide solutions to global health threats affecting people, animals, and the environment, launched what is called a One Health observatory to build capacity in 12 eastern and southern African countries. This Observatory is an online, centralised platform for sharing and documenting the status of One Health activities in the project countries, documenting the three domains of focus of the COHESA project: One Health governance, One Health education, and One Health delivery.

The creation of an Observatory embedded in a local socio-ecological context [9] and in relation with local communities is a response to organisations such as One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) [10] or the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which insist on the need to understand the underlying causes that influence all indirect and direct drivers of biodiversity loss and nature’s decline, [11] and the Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health [12] call to implement the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM GBF) which invites developing technical and scientific cooperation relevant to interlinkages between biodiversity and health (Target 20).

It relies on the OHHLEP’s definition of One Health [13]:

“One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems.

It recognizes the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and inter-dependent.

The approach mobilizes multiple sectors, disciplines and communities at varying levels of society to work together to foster well-being and tackle threats to health and ecosystems, while addressing the collective need for clean water, energy and air, safe and nutritious food, taking action on climate change, and contributing to sustainable development.”

To our knowledge, the One Health Observatory we present is the first and unique on-the-ground One Health Observatory anchored on local observations in response to the multidimensional social-environmental changes occurring in the Southeast Asia region [14]. Southeast Asia is a hotspot of endangered biodiversity (and cultural and biocultural diversity). It must be flexible, adaptive, and responsive to the local needs and observations.

This region combines the effects of demographic dynamics (urbanisation, ageing populations), economic dynamics (economic corridors and integration into globalisation), environmental dynamics (climate change, air pollution, biodiversity loss), and land use changes (agricultural intensification, expansion of commercial plantations). It is also a hotspot of emerging infectious diseases, such as SARS and avian influenza, and of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in relation to biodiversity loss, land use, and land cover change (e.g., forest conversion to intensive crop production).

2.1. Regional and Local Observations

The region committed to cooperating with various institutional networks such as the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance or the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity under the One Health approach to combat the spread of emerging infectious diseases and AMR within its main regional body (the ASEAN) [15]. The region has also developed worldwide collaborations and welcomed international conferences such as the International Ministerial Conference on Animal and Pandemic Influenza, hosted by the Government of Vietnam in 2010, with representatives from 71 countries and various regional bodies, international organisations, and stakeholders from the development community. Beyond the call for action to respond to the highly pathogenic avian influenza, the participants acknowledged the need for worldwide concerted efforts to better understand the disease threats at the animal–human–environment interface. They formalised the adoption of the One Health approach for that purpose.

The role of local communities in the prevention of diseases, the importance of science-based interventions, and the necessary alignment of strategies and policies at the local, national, regional, and global levels have been firmly supported since then [16,17]. They offer a better understanding of disease threats caused by the emergence of infectious diseases or the AMR in relation to environmental changes, and they necessitate data, research results, and scientific expertise [18].

Observation is the core of the HealthDEEP international research laboratory located in Thailand. HealthDEEP stands out as a One Health Observatory by building on more than fifteen years of collaborative research co-developed with local communities, administrations, healthcare units, and the Nanthaburi National Park. It allows the gathering of various types of data, such as ecological data (biodiversity, land use, land cover) or data on epidemiology, genetics, policy, or public health. HealthDEEP is a CNRS international laboratory and, as such, it draws on some principles of CNRS’s Human–Environment Observatories (Observatoires Hommes-Milieux, OHMs). The OHMs are living laboratories that contribute to the sustainable development of the territory through their research and the dissemination of their results to the scientific communities and society. They are based on the co-construction of research questions linked to socio-ecological issues identified by the local communities and promote interdisciplinarity in a “spirit of openness” [19].

2.2. What Do We Observe?

HealthDEEP as a One Health Observatory collects data on various topics and at different scales with the aim to support the governance of biodiversity, the environment, and health at local to global levels and to develop ecosystem-based solutions [20]. Observations feed three different sections of the One Health Observatory:

-

Local observations of the social ecology of biodiversity and health, in Saen Thong, Nan Province: HealthDEEP constitutes a platform used to implement nature-based and ecosystem-based innovations and solutions to improve the prevention of disease transmission at the interface between human, animal, and ecosystem health [21]. It results from a series of projects conducted in collaboration with local communities and administrations [22].

-

Observations of wildlife and transmission ecology: At Mahidol University, Kanchanaburi Campus (MUKA), local observations of wildlife are dedicated to disease ecology. They notably consist in long-term observations of small mammals and birds in MUKA, performed to understand wildlife diversity and population dynamics linked to disease ecology and zoonotic spillover (https://healthdeep.shinyapps.io/small_mammals_MUKA/, accessed on 25 July 2025).

As we have seen, GEO BON has developed a framework of diversity and ecosystem variables, constituting a rigorous basis for monitoring trends in different facets of biodiversity across thematic Biodiversity Observatory Networks. HealthDEEP collaborates with one of them, Soil BON, which detects changes in soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning that are a result of human activities across spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. HealthDEEP implemented the soil sampling protocol of Soil BON in Saen Thong (https://healthdeep.shinyapps.io/soilBON/, accessed on 25 July 2025). HealthDEEP studies soil biodiversity and diseases (melioidosis, leptospirosis, and scrub typhus) in national park areas (Kanchanaburi, Nan, Loei).

-

Regional observations of environmental and health changes from a worldwide monitoring perspective: Thanks to regional collaborations, HealthDEEP aims to become a regional One Health observatory focusing on health and biodiversity [23]. It is involved in several research projects linked with and integrated into the sectors of health and environment in Thailand and, more broadly, in Southeast Asia. The research guidelines include science and policy dialogue with international organisations (One Health Quadripartite) and non-governmental organisations to achieve the success of the One Health approach.

One of HealthDEEP’s core aims is to support the development of early-career researchers and to strengthen collaborative training and research activities in Thailand—and more broadly in Southeast Asia—in order to train the next generation of researchers.

The next task for the One Health Observatory is to expand on the observation, collection, and analysis of data to share and discuss it at the regional level.

2.3. From the Field to the Laboratory

As stated by Kohler [24], “Field biologists use places actively in their work as tools; they do not just work in a place, as lab biologists do, but on it. Places are as much the object of their work as the creatures that live in them”. HealthDEEP has a long-term collaboration with local hospitals and Primary Care Units, and has developed common research protocols and associated ethical approvals. The observations are made possible in the field first and then in the laboratory (example: rodents and parasites, traps, camera traps).

HealthDEEP benefits from facilities such as the following:

-

A collection room. There is a biobank used for the storage of tissues, samples, and DNA (fixed, inactivated) from wildlife under secure conditions. This biobank is open to researchers in phylogeny and molecular genetics.

-

A molecular biology laboratory for protistology and microbiology.

-

A molecular biology laboratory (parasitology) and an office in the Department of Helminthology of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University (Bangkok).

As we have seen, GEO BON has developed a framework of diversity and ecosystem variables that constitute a rigorous basis for monitoring trends in different facets of biodiversity across thematic Biodiversity Observatory Networks. One of them, Soil BON, detects changes in soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning as a result of human activities across spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. HealthDEEP collaborates with Soil BON. The unit implemented the soil sampling protocol of SoilBON in Saen Thong (see https://healthdeep.shinyapps.io/soilBON/, accessed on 25 July 2025). It demonstrates how local observations can inform and contribute to regional and global studies and monitoring of biodiversity.

3. The Aims of the One Health Observatory

The aims of the One Health Observatory are as follows:

-

Develop collaborative research on the transmission of diseases at the wildlife–livestock–environment interface in the One Health approach.

-

Contribute to the development of land-based solutions as integrated strategies for resilient territories (One Health, climate change, biodiversity).

-

Enhance the science/policy dialogue in Global Health/One Health/Planetary Health.

The Observatory, by facilitating the dialogue between science and policy, contributes to collaborative research in the sectors of environment and health in Thailand—within the region and beyond—through its partner networks in Southeast Asia and Europe (including French institutes). It also constitutes a think tank, creating a space to share knowledge and ideas with international organisations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and contribute to the science and policy dialogue.

Its distinctive research approach, connecting different generations of researchers, favours the training of the next generation of researchers at the forefront of One Health implementation.

3.1. Data Conservation and Organised Data Sharing

The HealthDEEP team is aware that data gathered by the Observatory should be perennial and shared with the local community and institutions (PCU, administrative departments), the scientific community (researchers from various disciplines), and stakeholders (decision-makers at different levels). This necessitates contextualising the data collected and making explicit the targeted questions, as using this data is necessary for data conservation and later use [25]. The associated metadata is structured in that respect.

HealthDEEP contributes to the international movement towards Open Science following the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles for the consolidation of knowledge essential for the development of more efficient research. It is registered in the Research Organisation Registry (ROR), which is a global, community-led registry of open persistent identifiers for research organisations (

Table 1. Examples of open platforms used by HealthDEEP.

Resource	Data Type	Links
RPubs	R codes	HealthDEEP RPubs (https://rpubs.com/HealthDEEP, accessed on 25 July 2025)
GitHub	data and R codes (DOI can be obtained by transfer to Zenodo)	HealthDEEP GitHub (https://github.com/HealthDEEP, accessed on 25 July 2025)
Shinyapps.io	data representation and data sharing	CERoPath at shinyapps.io (https://healthdeep.shinyapps.io/Small_mammals_CERoPath/, accessed on 25 July 2025)
Zenodo	data and R codes (with DOI)	HealthDEEP at zenodo (https://zenodo.org/communities/healthdeep/records?q=&l=list&p=1&s=10&sort=newest/, accessed on 25 July 2025)
Wildlifeinsights	camera traps	HealthDEEP at wildlifeinsights (https://app.wildlifeinsights.org/explore, accessed on 25 July 2025)

).

Open platforms are also employed to support data visualisation by enhancing data sharing among diverse stakeholders and fostering the science–policy dialogue, including the translation of scientific findings into policy and regulatory frameworks.

3.2. One Health Lessons and Results

The One Health Observatory is a place to gather local One Health lessons, thanks to the involvement of local communities in defining research questions. The lessons learnt locally can be shared nationally and regionally and used to raise awareness of specific situations (Figure 1).

One emblematic example is the study of exposure to pesticides (organophosphate compounds). Pesticide poisoning has been pointed out by the local population as a major health issue that is common across all ages during various workshops organised to better understand the health issues identified. A longitudinal study showed that exposure rates were similar among people who do use or do not use pesticides, suggesting exposure by ingestion of contaminated crops. The study of pesticide exposure has been expanded to domestic animals and wildlife [27].

Generalised linear modelling revealed that age (older participants), chemical usage (spraying pesticide), habitat landscape characteristics (i.e., villages surrounded by orchards, forests, teak, rubber, and rain-fed rice), and soil erosion appeared to be significant factors explaining the level of exposure. In addition, domestic animals (dogs and cattle) and wildlife (rodents and fish) living in the vicinity were also assessed for their level of exposure via human, domestic animal, and wildlife blood sampling.

This type of One Health field study has achieved the following:

-

Provided a baseline of pesticide exposure for further epidemiological toxicology studies.

-

Contributed to a One Health field study (participatory mapping, questionnaire, blood sampling, soil erosion, landscape characteristics).

-

Confirmed the need to expand the role of the government [28], the crucial importance of the effective implementation of the regulation, and the role of education in use of pesticides [29].

4. Prospects

The adoption of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022 has been followed by the development of national biodiversity strategies and action plans [30] to mainstream biodiversity and health interlinkages into national policies, strategies, and programmes. At the regional level, the ASEAN Biodiversity Plan contributes to the implementation of the KM GBF through regional interventions and complements the efforts of the ASEAN member States towards biodiversity through capacity development, knowledge sharing, and best practices [31].

Within the KM GBF, One Health actions are currently framed primarily in terms of intersectionality. In this context, the HealthDEEP One Health Observatory can play a key role as a catalyst, fostering synergies among local communities, regional initiatives, and national policies. Its mission includes promoting the long-term sharing of knowledge and data on biodiversity and health across these different scales and bridging science and society by engaging international organisations, non-governmental organisations, and regional stakeholders in an iterative science policy dialogue, thanks to its network of partners, while promoting the valorisation of the ecological field work [32].

5. Conclusions

A One Health Observatory builds on longstanding partnerships with local communities and institutions and responds to questions at the animal–human–environment interface that have been identified locally. Long-term observations at the local level allow for the understanding of the trends and evolutions of the environment, facilitate the implementation of tools to monitor the policies locally, and provide insights that can help adapt these policies at the local level.

The fieldwork allows the gathering of various types of data on the environment (biodiversity), health (wildlife, domestic animal, and human), and animal and human behaviour, for instance. Field experimentation and the associated data are contextualised to ensure reproducibility.

We hope that this model will inspire researchers and policymakers to replicate similar One Health Observatories in other regions or countries, adapting them to local ecological and social contexts to contribute to upstream prevention of diseases.