Wildlife-Livestock-Human-Interface: An Urgent Public Health Concern Demanding Strengthened One Health Action in India

Abstract

India faces escalating zoonotic disease risks at the wildlife-livestock-human interface, driven by extraordinary biodiversity, one of the world's largest livestock populations, rapid urbanisation, and widespread deforestation. Nearly 60% of human infectious agents are zoonotic in origin, and 75% of emerging and re-emerging diseases share this characteristic.
Over the past two decades, India has witnessed major outbreaks including Nipah Virus, Kyasanur Forest Disease, H1N1 influenza, and COVID-19. Ecological disruption, shrinking wildlife habitats, and livestock grazing within wildlife reserves facilitate pathogen spillover, while pastoralist and livestock-rearing communities bear a disproportionate burden from diseases such as brucellosis, scrub typhus, and anthrax. Recent outbreaks of Lumpy Skin Disease and Avian Influenza have compounded public health and economic losses. India has responded institutionally through the National One Health Mission and a pioneering ICMR inter-ministerial surveillance initiative employing Next Generation Sequencing across three states. However, institutional momentum must translate into ground-level action; integrating surveillance systems, strengthening primary healthcare capacity, improving community risk communication, and embedding One Health education in medical curricula. Multidisciplinary preparedness within a One Health framework is essential. The question is not whether another spillover will occur, but whether India will be prepared.