The Centre for Applied One Health Research and Policy Advice — The Public-Health Ambitions of CityU’s Veterinary Outreach

This article belongs to Module 11, "Medicine/Hospitals," of the City University of Hong Kong Unofficial History Archive (Part 2 of the second section). See also biomedical-and-health-sciences.md (on the biomedical school and the absence of a medical school) and veterinary-college.md (on the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, JCC).

CityU’s Centre for Applied One Health Research and Policy Advice (OHRP) was established in October 2016^※ within the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences. Operating under a "human–animal–environment health" triad framework, it dispatches ambulatory veterinary teams to over 1,200 agricultural and fishery operations across Hong Kong and provides evidence-based policy advice to international bodies such as the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH/OIE). It is the most wide-ranging public-health-oriented veterinary outreach organisation currently operating in Hong Kong.

# What exactly is "One Health," and why did CityU set up a dedicated centre for it?

The One Health concept holds that human health, animal health, and environmental ecology are inseparable. Controlling zoonotic diseases (such as avian influenza and African swine fever), curbing antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and safeguarding food safety all require intervention at the intersection of these three systems. Neither human medicine nor veterinary medicine alone is sufficient.

At CityU, this framework has an institutional backstory. The CityU Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC)^※, founded in 2014, is Hong Kong’s only veterinary school (see veterinary-college.md). But JCC extends well beyond clinics and classrooms. According to the OHRP website^※, the Centre’s mission is "to generate scientific knowledge that will facilitate the development of evidence-based policies at the local, national, regional and international level to prevent and control infectious animal diseases affecting human health and animal production, welfare and health." In other words, OHRP is JCC’s "outward-facing" policy and service arm: it translates knowledge from laboratories and teaching rooms into actions farmers can use and policy recommendations that international agencies can cite.

# When was OHRP founded, and who leads it?

OHRP was established in October 2016^※ under the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences.

Its leading figure is Professor Dirk Udo Pfeiffer^※, whose current titles include "Chow Tak Fong Chair Professor of One Health" and "Director of OHRP." Professor Pfeiffer holds multiple qualifications — Tierarzt, Dr.med.vet., PhD, MANZCVSc, and DipECVPH — and is an internationally recognised veterinary epidemiologist. He previously served as a professor at the Royal Veterinary College in the United Kingdom and currently chairs the OIE/FAO OFFLU network’s Applied Epidemiology Technical Working Group.

The aquaculture stream is led by Professor Sophie St-Hilaire^※, who heads the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health. She holds a DVM, a master’s degree and a PhD in veterinary epidemiology, and an MBA, and is a licensed practising veterinarian.

# Where does the ambulatory veterinary service come from, and how much government funding does it receive?

CityU OHRP’s outreach veterinary services are directly funded by the Hong Kong SAR Government. According to a CityU press release dated 7 January 2019^※, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), through the Sustainable Agricultural Development Fund and the Sustainable Fisheries Development Fund, awarded a total of HK$35 million to support the following three two-year research and service projects:

All three projects share the goal of "combining the delivery of veterinary services to the industry with research to ensure animal health and food safety for Hong Kong citizens." The same press release quotes Professor Pfeiffer as explicitly stating the aim of "improving farm productivity, animal welfare and food safety and preventing the emergence of zoonotic diseases."

# How do the ambulatory vets visit pig and poultry farms?

The CityU ambulatory veterinary services page^※ explains that OHRP’s ambulatory team visits terrestrial and aquatic production animal populations at the request of farmers, helping them address animal health and production needs so that farmers can respond to various health and production problems "more rapidly and cost-effectively." The overall goal is to collaborate with farmers to identify disease-prevention solutions and enhance farms’ sustainability.

Taking the pig project as an example, OHRP serves 43 participating pig farms (per the JCC press release^※). Notably, an academic paper published in BMC Veterinary Research in 2023^※ reveals that, using a mixed-methods approach of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, the research team surveyed 9 pig farmers in Hong Kong’s New Territories — a 24% response rate from the 38 active pig farms. The median herd size was 2,800 head (range: 950–7,000), and all farms operated a farrow-to-finish model. Farmers generally endorsed the ethos of CityU’s service, but concerns about a lack of local experience and language proficiency were also recorded. This paper itself illustrates OHRP’s practice of converting service experience into peer-reviewed research.

For the poultry project, a total of 28^※ poultry farms are enrolled. According to a Times Higher Education report^※, Professor Pfeiffer’s team’s day-to-day work includes on-farm visits, delivering clinical services, assessing biosecurity measures, and collecting samples from water, broilers, and breeding stock — for pathogen detection and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance. All collected samples are tested by the CityU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (CityU VDL) (see veterinary-college-2.md for details). One of the two projects’ core public-health tasks is helping farmers reduce reliance on antimicrobials, curtailing the spread of AMR at the farm level.

# How does the fisheries ambulatory service cover Hong Kong’s thousand-plus aquaculture operations?

The fish health project^※, led by Professor St-Hilaire, covers a service area that the JCC press release^※ indicates spans 945 marine fish culture operations and 332 freshwater pond fish culture operations across Hong Kong. The team helps fish farmers tackle pathogens, parasites, and harmful algal blooms, and provides on-site veterinary services in conjunction with the AFCD’s health inspection scheme.

In operational terms, Professor St-Hilaire assembled a team of two part-time veterinarians and two fish health technicians, who visit farms five days a week. According to a CityU Today report^※, the team serves approximately 1,000 farms, with the cost of on-site services fully covered by the AFCD’s Sustainable Fisheries Development Fund — meaning fish farmers incur no additional expense.

The documented outcomes include: diagnosing multiple bacterial diseases, involving pathogens with zoonotic potential such as Vibrio sp., Aeromonas sp., and Streptococcus sp., and accumulating over 40 isolates from Hong Kong aquaculture systems for antimicrobial resistance analysis.

The entire fish health service system also provides veterinary training: CityU BVM students can take part in fisheries placements, and the service also runs workshops for the local veterinary community, helping to fill the longstanding gap in aquatic veterinary expertise within Hong Kong.

# Beyond local services, what international research and policy roles does OHRP play?

OHRP’s policy advisory role is not limited to Hong Kong. Below are its main international projects:

The One Health Poultry Hub: Led by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), UK^※, and funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), this Hub covers Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. Professor Pfeiffer serves as the Hub’s Deputy Director. The research focuses on the public-health risks — foodborne poisoning, avian influenza, and AMR — arising from surging poultry demand.

The EPINEST project: According to JCC news from March 2024^※, CityU is collaborating with the University of Oxford, RVC, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and other institutions, using GCRF funding through the One Health Poultry Hub to develop computer models simulating how avian influenza pathogens spread through poultry production and transport networks, in order to "provide valuable insights into infectious disease threats associated with global food systems."

African Swine Fever transboundary risk assessment (OIE/CityU): OHRP collaborated with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, formerly OIE) Sub-Regional Representation for Southeast Asia to develop and publish a Transboundary Risk Assessment for African Swine Fever in Southeast Asia Handbook^※, converting field training into a series of online seminars between 2020 and 2021. Additionally, OHRP contributed to WOAH’s updated guidelines on ASF vaccines^※.

Nanobubble antimicrobial reduction research: A three-year project funded with HK$15 million (launched in March 2019) that examines the efficacy of nanobubble technology — injecting ozone in micro-bubbles to eliminate bacteria in water without harming fish — in both marine and freshwater aquaculture systems, with partners in Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Scotland.

# How does OHRP’s positioning differ from the rest of CityU’s veterinary school?

The table below clarifies the functional boundaries between OHRP and other major JCC veterinary bodies:

The coexistence of these four functions within a single university’s veterinary school forms a complete chain — from individual-animal diagnostics and treatment, to population-health management, to regional public-health policy. This is precisely the One Health framework rendered in institutional form. For facility details on the first two (VMC and VDL), see veterinary-college-2.md.

# Fact-checking notes for this article

Key figures in this article — the HK$35 million total grant, the names of the three project leads, 43 pig farms / 28 poultry farms / 945 marine + 332 freshwater fishery operations, a team of two part-time vets and two technicians, over 40 isolates — have all been traced to official CityU press releases or peer-reviewed journals. Director of OHRP Professor Dirk Pfeiffer’s title has been verified against the CityU Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health staff page. All figures carry source type and year (2019 funding announcement). Professor Pfeiffer’s Chinese name, 「鄭達峯」, is recorded as it commonly appears in his Chinese-language signature and remains subject to official documentation.