ICMR’s workshop on zoonoses surveillance
India’s response, therefore, cannot remain confined to human medicine; it must track diseases across people, livestock, wildlife, and ecosystems simultaneously.
The initiative, titled “Establishing a One Health Sentinel Surveillance System in High Human-Animal-Interaction Settings among Selected Zoos in India”, is led by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-NIV Pune, National Institute for One Health (Nagpur), Bharati Vidyapeeth, and Pune zoo as partners. Mishra, director, Interactive Research School for Health Affairs (IRSHA) at Bharati Vidyapeeth (DU) and former director of ICMR-NIV, said, “A zoo itself is an ecosystem where human, animal, and environmental health come together, making it an important setting for understanding and addressing zoonotic threats. Dr Rajlakshmi Viswanathan, scientist E at ICMR-NIV, Pune, added, “The study seeks to strengthen proactive disease monitoring, enable early warning of potential zoonotic spillovers, support coordinated outbreak responses, generate systematic data on diseases prevalent among zoo animals, and identify potential occupational health risks.”
It combines awareness training, syndromic surveillance, laboratory investigations, and health check-ups for frontline zoo personnel. The One Health Mission operates on the principle that the next epidemic may not announce itself in a hospital; instead, it may begin where humans, animals, and the environment intersect. Dr A.C. The National One Health Mission was created for precisely this purpose of integrated surveillance, early warning, and coordinated response across sectors. Dr Rajkumar Jadhav, director, Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park & Wildlife Research Centre, highlighted the vital role zoos play in wildlife conservation and reaffirmed the zoo’s commitment to supporting the successful implementation of the project. The Pune project seeks to gather systematic data on infections in zoo animals, assess occupational risks among staff, and detect early signals of pathogens crossing species barriers.