One Health as a transdisciplinary field: actors, practices, knowledge

This special issue of the Salute e Società journal deals with the One Health (OH) framework, which emphasises the need to tackle the challenges of human, animal and ecosystem health using a more integrated approach. Since the mid-2000s and even more since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health scholars and policymakers have been paying increasing attention to the One Health approach. Although the term is relatively recent, OH is not a new concept, and it is continually evolving as it changes based on historical context and political, social, economic, and cultural factors. After the conference ‘One World, One Health: Building Interdisciplinary Bridges to Health in a Globalized World’, held in 2004 at the Rockefeller University in New York and coordinated by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a group of experts led by Robert A. Cook and Steven A. Osofsky published a concluding synthesis containing twelve recommendations, labelled by the document’s authors as the ‘Manhattan Principles’. Scientists called that “a broader understanding of health and disease demands a unity of approach achievable only through a consilience of human, domestic animal and wildlife health - One Health”. So “only by breaking down the barriers among agencies, individuals, specialities and sectors can we unleash the innovation and expertise needed to meet the many serious challenges to the health of people, domestic animals, and wildlife and to the integrity of ecosystems” (WCS 2004).