International One Health Initiative on the Island of Riems: working together for global health

From 7 to 11 July 2025, 24 experts from Nigeria and Germany gathered at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) on the island of Riems for a very special meeting. The focus was on the One Health approach, which considers humans, animals and the environment as interconnected areas when it comes to health and disease control. The focus was on the One Health approach, which considers humans, animals and the environment to be interconnected with regard to health and disease control. Experts from various disciplines, including human and veterinary medicine, environmental biology, epidemiology, and anthropology, participated in the international workshop. Represented organisations included the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), the University of Ibadan (UI), the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the FLI itself. The workshop focused on jointly evaluating a quasi-experimental study that compared conventional risk communication methods with a new, innovative, community-led intervention method. To this end, possible exposure risk factors were jointly collected across sectors before and after the intervention using a 'One Health Joint Risk Assessment', which was then triangulated and described during the workshop. The study focused on Lassa fever, a widespread viral disease in Nigeria that can only be effectively combated through cooperation between all relevant sectors. The COPE strategy (Community-based One Health Participatory Empowerment) is intended for application to other issues affecting human, animal and environmental health in future. A special by-product of the workshop was the joint performance of a song, which creatively summarises the project's central scientific content and values. This song was performed during the breaks and as a team-building exercise. This song will be used in the future as a method of risk communication, providing an innovative way to convey scientific messages that is low-threshold, culturally embedded, and emotionally accessible. A music video will be produced and published to demonstrate the connection between art and science. Never before has the FLI welcomed so many guests from Nigeria at its main location on the island of Riems at the same time, which is a clear indication of a genuine international partnership and One Health practice based on equal cooperation. The workshop, organised by the FLI's Institute for International Animal Health/One Health, clearly demonstrates that global health threats such as zoonoses can only be effectively understood and combated by working together across disciplinary boundaries.