Surveillance and response to emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases: advancing One Health from evidence to action

Zoonotic diseases pose significant threats to global health security, societal stability, and economic well-being by causing widespread illness, overwhelming healthcare systems, disrupting communities, and driving the majority of emerging infectious diseases. This editorial synthesizes key insights on surveillance and response to zoonotic diseases, arguing that current systems must evolve from fragmented, human-centric detection toward integrated, anticipatory platforms. The collected papers underscore that traditional surveillance fails to address the accelerating drivers of zoonotic emergence, such as climate change, agricultural intensification, and antimicrobial resistance. Instead, they advocate for a paradigm shift wherein genomics, artificial intelligence, and digital tools are leveraged to interpret risk signals across human, animal, and environmental domains-enabling early warning and source attribution. Critically, the issue emphasizes that technological advances alone are insufficient; effective response depends on embedding these tools within robust One Health governance, sustained cross-sectoral collaboration, and equity-focused investments. By framing surveillance as an action-oriented continuum, the contributions collectively assert that preventing future zoonotic crises requires transforming One Health from a conceptual ideal into an operational infrastructure capable of translating data into timely, context-specific interventions.