One Health

The One Health paradigm recognises that human well-being, animal health and ecosystem integrity are interdependent. Many emerging and re-emerging diseases—among them SARS, Ebola, Zika and COVID-19—arise at the interface of wildlife, livestock and people, often driven by land-use change, intensive agriculture, global trade and urban expansion. One Health promotes integrated surveillance, shared data and coordinated response across public health, veterinary and environmental sectors. By breaking down disciplinary silos, this approach aims to anticipate spillover events, optimise antimicrobial use, safeguard food safety and strengthen resilience to environmental threats. Effective One Health action involves policy alignment, capacity building, joint research and community engagement to mitigate risks and secure sustainable health outcomes for all species and the habitats on which they depend.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Global analyses have identified geographic and agricultural drivers of zoonotic emergence. A large‐scale study mapped past outbreaks and showed that tropical forests undergoing rapid land conversion and high mammalian biodiversity remain persistent hotspots for novel spillovers, producing risk maps to guide targeted surveillance. A complementary investigation linked the rise in emerging human infections since 1940 to agricultural intensification, quantifying the contributions of livestock expansion, pesticide use and habitat loss to pathogen emergence. Foundational work has demonstrated that viruses infecting taxonomically diverse host ranges—exhibiting high host plasticity—are more prone to human-to-human transmission and broader spread, underlining which animal‐borne pathogens warrant priority monitoring on multi-species interfaces.

One Health publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in one health across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

One Health: An integrated, multisectoral approach that seeks to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems through collaborative surveillance, prevention and response.

Zoonosis: An infectious disease naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans, often emerging through direct contact or environmental exposure.

Spillover: The event in which a pathogen crosses from its animal reservoir into a new host species, initiating infection and potential onward transmission.

Reservoir host: A primary animal population in which a pathogen is maintained over time without causing severe disease, serving as a source of human infection.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR): The ability of microorganisms to withstand therapeutic concentrations of drugs that were previously effective, often driven by overuse in healthcare, agriculture and the environment.

References

1. From “one medicine” to “one health” and systemic approaches to health and well-being. Preventive Veterinary Medicine (2010).
2. The One Health Concept: 10 Years Old and a Long Road Ahead. Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2018).
3. Global hotspots and correlates of emerging zoonotic diseases. Nature Communications (2017).
4. Emerging human infectious diseases and the links to global food production. Nature Sustainability (2019).
5. Spillover and pandemic properties of zoonotic viruses with high host plasticity. Scientific Reports (2015).
6. Global shifts in mammalian population trends reveal key predictors of virus spillover risk. Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2020).
7. Urbanization and Disease Emergence: Dynamics at the Wildlife–Livestock–Human Interface. Trends in Ecology & Evolution (2016).