Enhancing research integration to improve One Health actions: learning lessons from neglected tropical diseases experiences

[...]multidisciplinary research approaches at the fundamental, translational and applied levels progressively bloomed in the field of NTDs by necessity, to improve scientific knowledge at the service of control interventions. For, instance, it has been recently demonstrated that the emergence of animal reservoirs of Dracunculus medinensis, particularly in fish-consuming domestic dogs (93% of all Guinea worms detected worldwide in 2020 were in dogs in Chad), has become the major impediment to eradication of this human disease.3 4 For human African trypanosomiasis, the importance of latent infections in seropositive asymptomatic individuals,5 the identification of domestic pigs as reservoirs of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense6 and the probable role of skin-dwelling trypanosomes in transmission maintenance7 8 are active research areas that may be crucial for reaching the elimination goal.9 Actually, the lack of fundamental scientific knowledge about the natural reservoirs and even the transmission of Mycobacterium ulcerans, that still remain elusive in most endemic areas,10 is also pointing to the crucial need for more fundamental knowledge on NTDs. Impact of multidisciplinary translational research Improving the sustainability of interventions by considering the multiple ecological, biological, and socioanthropological determinants of NTDs and by mobilising multiple actors (communities, leaders, health centres, local authorities, health authorities, etc) in a multidisciplinary way (ie, anthropological studies before sensitisation, environmental studies prior to selecting a vector control strategy, etc) was seen to be key when means were scarce. [...]the results obtained are fragile and can be annihilated by prematurely stopping the vaccination effort.17 18 Canine vaccination strategies would certainly benefit from developing potent rabies vaccine inducing lifelong immunity in dogs that would shorten and lighten the burden of the mass dog vaccination campaigns, and stepping up oral vaccination schemes19 as well as better understanding human-dog relationships.20 At a broader scale, scientists still have to improve tools (diagnostic tests, treatments, vector control tools, etc) and strategies (mathematical modelling, vector control plans, etc) according to the evolution of the epidemiological context and consider cultural, economic, geographical, ecological, climatic and veterinary aspects from a One Health perspective.