World-first centre to connect public, animal and environmental health issues
The federal research centres for public and veterinary health will merge from January, to deal with health-care challenges under one management
One health principle
“The new research centre will be much more efficient in putting the ‘one health’ principle into practice,” said public health minister De Block. “One general institute will also have a stronger position on both the national and international level.” The one health approach connects the health of people, animals and the ecosystem.
The new centre will provide advice to the government, set up scientific research and support clinical research. It will also monitor the good practice rules of labs and be responsible for risk assessments. For example, it will check the quality of medicine, monitor food safety, deal with contagious animal diseases and analyse biological health risks.
While the services of the two institutes are currently spread over eight sites, by 2020 the departments of Sciensano will all be based at the Erasmus Zuid-site in Brussels. The merger process was started at the end of 2014, at the request of the WIV and Coda.
Photo courtesy WIV
