ZOOJEU: Using Q fever to highlight a participatory science approach for fostering the co-design of management strategies for neglected zoonotic diseases
5 affiliations
- 1Université Clermont Auvergne, INRAE, VetAgro Sup, UMR EPIA, Saint-Genès Champanelle, France
- 2French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), Sophia Antipolis Laboratory, Animal Q Fever Unit, Biot, France
- 3Origens Media Lab, Clermont-Ferrand, France
- 4DGER, Paris, France
- 5Collectif d’artistes Bureau d’Études, Ferme de la Mhotte, Saint Menoux, France
Abstract
Background: Decision-making is one of the most difficult aspects of managing neglected zoonotic diseases. Ideally, public health management strategies would account for all stakeholder perspectives. However, in practice, certain stakeholders, notably farmers, are often excluded. ZOOJEU is a participatory science approach designed to tackle this challenge; it uses Q fever in goats in western France as a target system. Materials and methods: ZOOJEU emerged from a transdisciplinary collaboration among researchers in epidemiology, social anthropology, and the public policy sciences. First, we wrote a comic strip based on earlier anthropological research that uncovered the different realities of stakeholders in a region that recently experienced a human Q fever outbreak. Second, a serious game was built to foster mutual understanding among stakeholders and encourage the collaborative co-designing of public health strategies with farmers. Game construction involved compiling lists of tangible and intangible elements that characterise stakeholder experiences of Q fever outbreaks. Then, the game was played by stakeholders at a workshop. Results: The comic strip highlighted issues related to Q fever for the stakeholders. The game was played by 23 stakeholders divided into three sets of players; each set of players included at least one farmer. The players were asked to collectively analyse a situation in which a goat farm is experiencing Q-fever-induced abortions. The players were invited to explain their perspectives and actions using game figures representing elements with which different stakeholders engage with regularly and/or in the context of a zoonosis. The goal was to establish a shared vision of what was happening on the farm. Conclusion: The approach appeared to be effective in establishing a common narrative and fostering a more democratic approach to public health while simultaneously accounting for human, animal, environmental, and social health concerns. Its utility as an educational tool should be explored further. Author summary: ZOOJEU is a participatory science approach that invites farmers and other stakeholders involved in livestock farming, human health, and animal health to explore a public health challenge together. The case study is a disease called Q fever, which affects humans and goats. ZOOJEU employs two main tools: a comic strip and a serious game. The comic strip graphically describes the results of anthropological research, which showed that stakeholders have very different experiences of Q fever. The serious game provides a way for stakeholders to discuss how they would experience and deal with a hypothetical Q fever outbreak on a goat farm. The perspectives of farmers are centred because the objective is to foster mutual respect among stakeholders and create space for constructive dialogue around disease management. Indeed, management strategies would gain from being co-constructed with farmers, who possess unique practical experience. We organised a workshop during which 23 stakeholders, organised into 3 groups, played the game. The workshop was successful in that it exposed players to multifaceted viewpoints while ensuring that input from farmers received specific attention. The results suggest that ZOOJEU provides a promising framework for innovatively advancing towards the more democratic management of neglected diseases. The approach also has applications in educational contexts.
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BibTeX
@article{jourdain2026zoojeu,
title = {{ZOOJEU: Using Q fever to highlight a participatory science approach for fostering the co-design of management strategies for neglected zoonotic diseases}},
author = {Elsa Jourdain and Élodie Rousset and Émilie Ramillien and Patrice Cayre and Xavier Fourt},
journal = {PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pntd.0014618},
url = {https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0014618},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - ZOOJEU: Using Q fever to highlight a participatory science approach for fostering the co-design of management strategies for neglected zoonotic diseases
AU - Elsa Jourdain
AU - Élodie Rousset
AU - Émilie Ramillien
AU - Patrice Cayre
AU - Xavier Fourt
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
DO - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0014618
UR - https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0014618
AB - Background: Decision-making is one of the most difficult aspects of managing neglected zoonotic diseases. Ideally, public health management strategies would account for all stakeholder perspectives. However, in practice, certain stakeholders, notably farmers, are often excluded. ZOOJEU is a participatory science approach designed to tackle this challenge; it uses Q fever in goats in western France as a target system. Materials and methods: ZOOJEU emerged from a transdisciplinary collaboration among researchers in epidemiology, social anthropology, and the public policy sciences. First, we wrote a comic strip based on earlier anthropological research that uncovered the different realities of stakeholders in a region that recently experienced a human Q fever outbreak. Second, a serious game was built to foster mutual understanding among stakeholders and encourage the collaborative co-designing of public health strategies with farmers. Game construction involved compiling lists of tangible and intangible elements that characterise stakeholder experiences of Q fever outbreaks. Then, the game was played by stakeholders at a workshop. Results: The comic strip highlighted issues related to Q fever for the stakeholders. The game was played by 23 stakeholders divided into three sets of players; each set of players included at least one farmer. The players were asked to collectively analyse a situation in which a goat farm is experiencing Q-fever-induced abortions. The players were invited to explain their perspectives and actions using game figures representing elements with which different stakeholders engage with regularly and/or in the context of a zoonosis. The goal was to establish a shared vision of what was happening on the farm. Conclusion: The approach appeared to be effective in establishing a common narrative and fostering a more democratic approach to public health while simultaneously accounting for human, animal, environmental, and social health concerns. Its utility as an educational tool should be explored further. Author summary: ZOOJEU is a participatory science approach that invites farmers and other stakeholders involved in livestock farming, human health, and animal health to explore a public health challenge together. The case study is a disease called Q fever, which affects humans and goats. ZOOJEU employs two main tools: a comic strip and a serious game. The comic strip graphically describes the results of anthropological research, which showed that stakeholders have very different experiences of Q fever. The serious game provides a way for stakeholders to discuss how they would experience and deal with a hypothetical Q fever outbreak on a goat farm. The perspectives of farmers are centred because the objective is to foster mutual respect among stakeholders and create space for constructive dialogue around disease management. Indeed, management strategies would gain from being co-constructed with farmers, who possess unique practical experience. We organised a workshop during which 23 stakeholders, organised into 3 groups, played the game. The workshop was successful in that it exposed players to multifaceted viewpoints while ensuring that input from farmers received specific attention. The results suggest that ZOOJEU provides a promising framework for innovatively advancing towards the more democratic management of neglected diseases. The approach also has applications in educational contexts.
SN - 1935-2735
SN - 1935-2727
ER -