BMC Global and Public Health is calling for submissions to our Collection on One Health, recognizing the intricate interconnection between human, animal, plant, and environmental health in addressing complex global health challenges. The One Health approach, championed by quadripartite organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO), seeks to unite various sectors and disciplines to tackle issues ranging from biodiversity preservation to food security and infectious disease control.
Effectively tackling complex global health problems increasingly necessitates the recognition that the health of humans, wild and domestic animals, plants, and the broader environment are inextricably interconnected. One Health as an approach to support health across humans, animals, and the wider environment brings together sectors and disciplines at local, national, and international levels to preserve biodiversity, prevent and respond to emerging infectious diseases, mitigate climate change impacts, and support food security, among others.
In 2022, the quadripartite organizations—FAO, UNEP, WOAH (formerly OIE), and WHO—launched the One Health Joint Plan of Action to advocate and support One Health initiatives at the global, regional, and national levels. The corresponding implementation guide was launched in 2023. While One Health approaches continue to be adopted, significant barriers to effective implementation remain, including challenges in coordination and collaboration across sectors, difficulties in data-sharing and the lack of regulatory frameworks, and unequal and inequitable access to resources.
BMC Global and Public Health is pleased to announce a call for papers to capture novel perspectives in One Health implementation to address global health threats. The upcoming collection entitled ‘Beyond disciplinary silos: Intersectoral collaboration for One Health implementation’ will be guest edited by Dr Mauricio Coppo and Dr Angeline Ferdinand from the University of Melbourne, Australia. We envision this work to inform future research, frameworks, intervention development, and policy.
This special collection invites the submission of Research, Comment, Review, and Opinion articles that highlight One Health approaches incorporating collaborative efforts between human, animal and/or environmental sectors. This special collection seeks to advance our understanding of how best to foster policy and operational environments that support successful advances in addressing health challenges at the intersection between humans, animals, and the environment. While taking an explicitly intersectoral approach, articles may tackle a broad range of issues and challenges. This may include:
- Initiatives to facilitate sharing surveillance data across sectors
- Intersectoral cooperation in the areas of food security, environmental conservation, or infectious disease surveillance
- One Health strategies for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response
- One Health initiatives to address and reduce antimicrobial resistance
- One Health for food safety, food security, and sustainable food production
- Evaluation of One Health initiatives or programs and relevant facilitators or challenges
- Impacts of climate change on patterns of infectious disease
- Development of governance mechanisms to facilitate One Health pathogen genomics for surveillance
- Interventions underpinned by the One Health Joint Plan of Action to address health threats to humans, animals, plants, and the environment
- Strategies to foster improved intersectoral governance and shared decision-making
- Development of One Health policy to improve human, animal, and environmental health
Please note that all articles must include a human health aspect, and Research articles must include human health data in their analysis. We encourage work from local, regional, and global partnerships, collaboration among stakeholders from multidisciplinary fields, and the use of multiple methodologies. We ask that authors be attentive to the use of non-stigmatizing/preferred language in their manuscripts as outlined in relevant language guidelines for their respective fields.
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