Microbiomes should be incorporated into The One Health Joint Plan of Action

Microbiomes should be incorporated into The One Health Joint Plan of Action The One Health Joint Plan of Action was created by major international organizations to tackle global health issues related to human, animal, plant, and environmental health. This article emphasizes the importance of integrating microbiomes into this framework to enhance health systems and prevention strategies. In 2022, four major international organizations—the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)—introduced the One Health Joint Plan of Action (2022-2026). This initiative outlines an ambitious framework to address global health challenges at the intersection of human, animal, plant, and environmental health. In particular, the document recognizes that individual disease-causing microorganisms and those that carry antimicrobial resistance (AMR) interact at this intersection. Yet despite its comprehensive scope, the plan omits explicit mention of microbiomes. This omission undervalues the potential for microbiome-based solutions to address global health challenges and misses an opportunity to move towards more proactive prevention through microbiome-based approaches.