Global prioritization of endemic zoonotic diseases for conducting surveillance in domestic animals to protect public health

Zoonotic diseases (zoonoses) originating from domestic animals pose a significant risk to people's health and livelihoods, in addition to jeopardizing animal health and production. Effective surveillance of endemic zoonoses at the animal level is crucial to assessing the disease burden and risk, and providing early warning to prevent epidemics in animals and spillover to humans. Here we aimed to prioritize and characterize zoonoses for which surveillance in domestic animals is important to prevent human infections at a global scale. A multi-criteria qualitative approach was used, where disease-specific information was obtained across literature of the leading international health organizations. Thirty-two zoonoses were prioritized, all of which have multi-regional spread, cause unexceptional human infections and have domestic animal hosts as important sources or sentinels of zoonotic infections. Most diseases involve multiple animal hosts and/or modes of zoonotic transmission, where a lack of specific clinical signs in animals further complicates surveillance. We discuss the challenges of animal health surveillance in endemic and resource-limited settings, as well as potential avenues for improvement such as the multi-disease, multi-sectoral and digital surveillance approaches. Our study will support global capacity-building efforts to strengthen the surveillance and control of endemic zoonoses at their animal sources.This article is part of the theme issue 'Challenges and opportunities in the fight against neglected tropical diseases: a decade from the London Declaration on NTDs'.

Automated summary

Zoonotic diseases originating from domestic animals pose a significant risk to human health and livelihoods. Effective surveillance of these diseases at the animal level is crucial to assessing the disease burden and risk, as well as providing early warning to prevent epidemics in both animals and humans. A multi-criteria qualitative approach was used to prioritize and characterize these diseases, and 32 zoonoses were identified as important for surveillance in domestic animals to prevent human infections at a global scale.