• Joining the cluster will enable the technology centre to apply its expertise in animal health, plant health and soil health to the healthcare ecosystem from a One Health perspective

The NEIKER technology centre has joined the Basque Health Cluster (BHC), the network that brings together organisations in the health sector in the Basque Country. This move will enable the technology centre to strengthen its involvement in initiatives relating to human health from a One Health perspective, an approach that links animal, human and environmental health.

NEIKER’s membership of the cluster responds to the need to tackle health challenges from an integrated perspective. In this context, the centre’s expertise in animal health, plant health and soil health enables it to contribute knowledge in areas linked to the interaction between the different components of the One Health concept.

Within this integrated approach, NEIKER brings the perspective of working with livestock and wildlife. In the Basque Country, the technology centre is the only one working on this aspect, a specialisation that enables the animal dimension to be incorporated into One Health approaches.

“This perspective is particularly relevant when studying zoonotic diseases – that is, those that can be transmitted from animals to humans either directly or indirectly via vectors or food, such as tuberculosis, Lyme disease or salmonellosis,” explains Natalia Elguezabal Vega, Head of the Department of Animal Science at NEIKER.

Furthermore, the technology centre has expertise in processes that share pathological similarities across species, such as granulomatous enteritis in ruminants and Crohn’s disease in humans, as well as in diseases common to both animals and humans that manifest in a similar way, such as mastitis in ruminants and humans.

The expertise developed by NEIKER in these fields enables it to contribute to the development and evaluation of therapies in different animal models, the development and evaluation of diagnostic techniques, and the risk analysis of infectious diseases, amongst other aspects.

In this context, NEIKER collaborates with the Basque Government’s Department of Health and Addictions and with Osakidetza on areas of research such as spongiform encephalopathies and vector-borne diseases. Currently, these collaborations also extend to areas such as the study of antimicrobial resistance.

 

Research capabilities

To carry out this research, the centre has specific facilities and equipment, including greenhouses, experimental fields and buildings adapted for trials with different animal species. It also has Level 2 and 3 biocontainment facilities (NCB3), comprising five laboratories, four rooms for large animals and a small animal facility adaptable to different species.

These capabilities, together with its membership of the Basque Health Cluster, will enable NEIKER to raise its profile in the field of human health and strengthen the partnerships it already has with the Department of Health and Addictions, hospitals, research centres and research groups at the University of the Basque Country (EHU).

Furthermore, they will facilitate access to new opportunities for collaboration with industry, as well as to training activities, meetings between organisations and calls for research proposals. Within this new framework for collaboration, the technology centre will be able to participate in R&D proposals in the field of human health and strengthen the development of initiatives based on the relationship between animal, human and environmental health.