Thierry Lefrançois appointed to the new French Committee for the monitoring and anticipation of health risks

This appointment confirms the desire to bridge the gap between the three fields of health: animal, human and environmental. “At CIRAD, we have been implementing the One Health concept for more than 20 years, taking a multisectoral, multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach that incorporates all types of health”, says Thierry Lefrançois, Director of CIRAD’s Biological Systems department. The research units in this department focus on animal health, plant health and biodiversity.

Thierry Lefrançois will work closely with Bruno Lina, a virologist, and Brigitte Autran, an immunologist and President of the committee, as part of a board that will liaise with different French Ministries, including Health and Prevention, Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, and Ecological Transition, as well as with the health agencies and different government bodies. Thierry Lefrançois will be responsible for issues of animal health and disease outbreaks in the global South, and will coordinate One Health approaches within the committee, integrating ecosystem and environmental health at the same level as animal and human health.

“The committee comprises 16 experts, five of whom, myself included, are already particularly active in the field of One Health approaches: an entomologist, a specialist in environmental health and pollution, a health ecologist, and an infectious disease specialist”, says Thierry Lefrançois. Civil society is also included, with two patient representatives and one citizen representative. See the official list of members.
 
Reporting to the Minister for Health and Prevention and the Minister for Higher Education and Research, this committee will provide expertise and independent advice to the health authorities, adopting a One Health approach extended to health risks associated with infectious agents affecting humans and animals, with environmental and food pollutants, and with climate change. 

The committee will interact with the expert groups from all agencies and research centres already existing in the fields of animal health, human health and environmental health, at the national and international levels.

Find out more in the official press release (in French)