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Soil microbiomes must be explicitly included in One Health policy

Nature Microbiology volume 8, pages 1367–1372 (2023)Cite this article

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An integrated science–policy–society interface that explicitly considers soil microbiomes is needed to achieve One Health goals.

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Fig. 1: The microbial loop in One Health.
Fig. 2: A framework to include soil microbiomes in One Health policy.

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Acknowledgements

Soil microbiome and One Health research in the lab of B.K.S. is funded by the Australian Research Council (DP230101448). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. We also acknowledge some input from K. Callens (FAO).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Brajesh K. Singh & Zhen-Zhen Yan

  2. Global Centre for Land-Based Innovation, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Brajesh K. Singh

  3. WHO Collaborating Centre for Vector Borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

    Maxine Whittaker

  4. Global Soil Partnership, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy

    Ronald Vargas

  5. Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy, Potsdam, Germany

    Ahmed Abdelfattah

Authors
  1. Brajesh K. Singh
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  2. Zhen-Zhen Yan
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  3. Maxine Whittaker
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  4. Ronald Vargas
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  5. Ahmed Abdelfattah
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Contributions

B.K.S. conceived the idea and wrote the first draft of the Comment All authors contributed to the discussion and refining the Comment.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brajesh K. Singh.

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Competing interests

B.K.S. serves on the ITPS (unpaid voluntary position). R.V. works for the FAO. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Microbiology thanks Lucas Mendes, Nicola Holden, Peter Rabinowitz and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Singh, B.K., Yan, ZZ., Whittaker, M. et al. Soil microbiomes must be explicitly included in One Health policy. Nat Microbiol 8, 1367–1372 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01386-y

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