Best practices for predicting and preventing pandemics

As zoonoses account for nearly two-thirds of human infectious diseases, the majority of which are from wild species, animal health represents an important factor in public health. This is especially relevant given increasing pressures on our environment that are changing human contact with wildlife, resulting in the growing threat of disease emergence to our global and local public health and economies. Leading drivers of disease emergence in humans from wildlife include anthropogenic pressures such as land use change, food production systems, and trade and travel. These complex drivers require broad and novel approaches to predicting and preventing disease emergence. A multisectoral or “One Health” approach that considers the human-animal-environment links can promote synergies among public health, veterinary and medical professions with other disciplines. For example, wildlife health and novel pathogen surveillance can allow for more proactive identification of risks for zoonotic pathogen emergence and transmission, and mapping of disease “hotspots” and disease forecasting can help inform areas of greatest risk to guide resource allocation for prevention efforts. Ecological and evolutionary perspectives can provide insight on pathogen ecology to guide control strategies, and social scientists can help identify population factors that lead to practices that increase disease transmission risk. A One Health approach may yield cost-effective disease prevention, monitoring and response, and can be implemented on a wide range of scales. Valuable insight and best practices can be gained from successful One Health models such as the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program and the One Health Alliance of South Asia.