Press releases

Download English version Download Portugese version

Brussels, 1 September 2026 

The 9th World One Health Congress will start on Friday at the Lisbon Congress Centre (CCL). Hosted by the global One Health Community (GOHC), the four-day Congress will provide a platform to share groundbreaking scientific data and policy developments across more than 80 sessions, including workshops, plenaries, keynotes, side events and poster presentations.

This year, the World One Health Congress returns to Europe for the first time since the 3rd Congress was held in Amsterdam in 2015. Bringing together the international One Health community in Europe provides a timely opportunity to highlight the region's contributions to advancing integrated approaches to human, plant and environmental health while strengthening international collaboration.

As the world's largest gathering dedicated to One Health, the 9th World One Health Congress will bring together more than 1.200 researchers, policymakers, healthcare professionals, veterinarians, environmental scientists, public health experts, industry leaders, international organizations and civil society representatives to exchange knowledge, build partnerships and shape solutions to the world's most pressing health challenges.

The program has been developed with the recommendations and key outcomes of the 8th World One Health Congress in Cape Town in 2024 firmly in mind, ensuring continuity of discussions while addressing emerging priorities and future opportunities. The Congress program features two complementary abstract-driven tracks: scientific sessions, showcasing cutting-edge research; and science policy interface sessions, bridging scientific evidence with policy development and implementation.

During the opening ceremony, high-level speakers will address key regional and global health priorities. Shaofeng Hu, Director of the Division of Ethics, Research and Technology at UNESCO, will focus on advancing One Health through science for sustainable development, followed by Emmanuelle Soubeyran, Director General of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), who will present "Health Beyond Boundaries: Realizing the Promise of One Health". Focussing on the European context, Sandra Gallina, Director-General for Health and Food Safety at the European Commission, will highlight opportunities to advance the European Health Union through One Health. Carlos das Neves, Chief Scientist at the European Food Safety Authority and co-chair of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP), will reflect on a pivotal year for One Health in Europe with a presentation entitled "Copenhagen, Lyon, Lisbon: Carpe diem Europe", and Anne-Françoise Berthon from the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) will feed back from the One Health Summit in Lyon. Finally, Mary Horgan, Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health - Ireland, will outline Ireland’s EU Presidency Vision for One Health.

“Scientific knowledge is the first step towards a resilient coping strategy eventually reflected in effective policies to combat the increasing challenges arising at the human, animal, plant and environmental interfaces that we face today. With its well-balanced One Health program, the 9th World One Health Congress will again create a unique opportunity to exchange the most recent scientific data, ideas, solutions and opportunities for collaboration in this field. Confronted with this ever increasing burden of challenges, it is of crucial importance to join forces and accelerate the development of new strategies to mitigate the impact of these challenges. This is precisely what the World One Health Congress in Lisbon will facilitate: From knowledge to action, shaping resilient One Health strategies." 

Ab Osterhaus, Co-founder global One Health Community, RIZ Hannover, Germany

"One Health integrates many issues across different disciplines concerned with human, animal, plant and ecohealth including zoonoses, food and water security, AMR, climate change, wildlife health and conservation, biosecurity, biodiversity and social equity. What a fantastic opportunity to meet colleagues and to take part in the conversations and discussions concerned with the major challenges and issues around One Health!" 

John Mackenzie, Co-founder global One Health Community, Curtin University, Australia

“As the world faces continuing outbreaks of serious infectious diseases and drug-resistant superbugs, along with increasingly terrible climate disasters, international cooperation is declining. It's very timely that the 9th World One Health Congress is gathering the best collaboration of interdisciplinary thinkers and doers from around the world to accelerate options for solutions to these urgent threats.” 

Dominique Charron, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Canada

“This is such an important time for the global One Health community to reconnect, collaborate and forge a way ahead together at the 9th World One Health Congress in Lisbon.” 

Jomana Musmar, Founder and Senior Consultant, Advisors of Global Health, United States of America

---ENDS---

The global One Health Community (GOHC) is a unique, independent and global community gathering One Health voices geared towards building bridges and strengthening communications between science and policy in a rapidly changing world. The objectives of the global One Health Community are to:

• Promote a cross-sectoral and collaborative approach to improve the health and well-being of humans, animals and their environments;
• Foster scientific research into zoonoses and vector-borne infectious diseases;
• Create synergies and facilitate the sharing of data between researchers;
• Disseminate and ‘translate’ novel scientific findings to anyone who might benefit from them;
• Develop the most appropriate communication tools to convey these novel scientific findings and to communicate widely on One Health issues;
• Training of young researchers;
• Improve stakeholder communications;
• Advocate for a One Health approach; and
• Facilitate the science and policy interface.

• WOHC 2026 Promotional toolkit 
• Join the conversation using #WOHC2026 on social media 
• WOHC 2024 Press release: One Health experts call for inclusion of the One Health concept in binding frameworks to achieve the SDGs 
• One Health Day 2026 
• What is One Health? 
• World One Health Congresses 
• Quadripartite Collaboration and Joint Plan of Action (2022 - 2026) 
• Quadripartite collaboration extends the One Health Joint Plan of Action to 2029 
• One Health Commission

• Goretti Cortina, gOHC Secretariat, [email protected] 
• Danielle Rooke, gOHC Secretariat, [email protected]