Ties that bind: understanding One Health networks and participation for zoonoses prevention and control in India

Abstract

Background: Cross-sectoral collaborations as exemplified by the One Health approach, are widely endorsed as pragmatic avenues for addressing zoonotic diseases, but operationalisation remain limited in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). Complexities and competing interests and agendas of key stakeholders and the underlying politico-administrative context can all shape outcomes of collaborative arrangements. Evidence is building that organised collaborations are complex political initiatives where different objectives; individual and institutional agendas need to be reconciled to incentivise collaborations.

Methods: Drawing on a qualitative network analysis of published sources on 'One Health' stakeholders supplemented with 26 multi-scale (national-state-district level) key-informant interviews (including policymakers, disease managers and public health experts), this paper characterises the fragmented and complex characteristics of institutional networks involved in zoonoses prevention and control in India.

Results: Our results highlight how the local socio-political and institutional contexts interact to modulate how and when collaborations occur (or not), the associated contingencies and stakeholder innovations in circumventing existing barriers (e.g. competing interests, distrust between actors, departmental bureaucracy) to cross-sector collaborations and zoonoses management. Aside from principal actors negotiating common ground in some instance, they also capitalised on political/institutional pressure to subtly 'manipulate' their subordinates as a way of fostering collaboration, especially in instances when the institutional and political stakes are high.

Conclusion: Altogether our findings suggest that cross-sectoral collaborations are by-product of political and institutional tinkering as long as individual actors and institutional interests converge and these dynamics must be embraced to embed meaningful and sustainable collaborations in local socio-political and administrative contexts.

Keywords: Cross-sector collaboration; India; Low-and middle-income countries; One health; Stakeholder mapping; Zoonosis.

Fig. 1

Flowchart of the selection process of relevant peer-reviewed articles focussing on OH activities/collaborations in India.  Adapted from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) by Page et al. 2020 [33]

Fig. 2

Graphical representation of the state stakeholder ecosystem for zoonotic disease prevention and control at the national level, represented across sectors and their linkages (orange rhombus = research institutes, blue circle = key ministries/policy institutions, light blue rectangle = policymaking institutions, dotted orange lines = research and development links, green line = policy link, yellow line = disease control link, red line = surveillance link, dotted black line = proposed policy line and dotted green line = proposed policy link, grey circle = key sector). ICMR = Indian Council for Medical Research; ICAR = Indian Council for Agricultural Research; NCDC = National Centre for Disease Control; NSCZ = National Standing Committee for Zoonoses; NIE = National Institute of Epidemiology; NIMR = National Institute for Malaria Research; RMRC = Regional Medical Research Centre; AWBI = Animal Welfare Board; DAHD = Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying; NDDB = National Dairy Development Board; CZA = Central Zoo Authority; PE = Project Elephant;SVU = State Veterinary Universities; DIGR = Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research; MoA&FW = Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; NIHSAD = National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases; NIVEDI = National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics; NRCE = National Research Centre for Equines; NRCM = National Research Centre on Meat; SAU = State Agricultural Universities; TFZ = Task Force on Zoonoses; DBT = Department of Biotechnology; DST = Department of Science and Technology; COHZTD = Consortium for One Health to Address Zoonotic and Transboundary Diseases; HITRT = Haffkine Institute for Training, Research and Testing; NEGOH = National Expert Group on One Health; NIAD_COH = national Institute of Animal Biotechnology Centre for One Health; IISC:GBPUAT = Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology; Indian Institute of Science; JNU = Jawaharlal Nehru University; MoEF&C-CPCB = Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change; NTCAI = National Tiger Conservation Authority of India; WD = Wildlife Department; WII = Wildlife Institute of India; CDSCO = Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation

Fig. 3

Graphical representation of the Karnataka state stakeholder ecosystem for zoonotic disease prevention and control represented across state sectors and their linkages (orange rhombus = research institutes, blue circle = key state ministries/ policy institutions, grey circle = key sectors, light blue rectangle = policy making state institutions; dotted orange lines = research and development links, green line = policy link, yellow line = disease control link red lines = surveillance link, dotted black lines = proposed policy link and dotted green lines = proposed policy linkage). ICMR = refers to Indian Council for Medical Research; ICAR = Indian Council for Agricultural Research; NIV = National Institute of Virology; SMoH&FW = State Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; DHFW = Department of Health and Family Welfare; NIMHANS = National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences; SHM = State Health Mission; SSU = State Surveillance Unit; TAC-KFD = Technical Advisory Committee on Kyasanur Forest Disease; VDL = Virus Diagnostic Laboratory; SMoFAH&D = State Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying; BBMP-OHC = Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike-One Health Cell, PRI = Panchayati Raj Institutions; NIANP = National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology;; KBB = Karnataka Biodiversity Board; KFD = Karnataka Forest Department; DoFEED = Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment Development; SSU = State Surveillance Unit; DEE—Department of Ecology and Environment; SHM = State Health Mission; VRDL = Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory; ZAoK = Zoo Authority of Karnataka; AHD = Animal Husbandry Department; RDDL = Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory; RDPR = Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department; KSFIC = Karnataka State Forest Industries Corporation Limited

Fig. 4

Visual representation of the factors influencing cross-sector engagement for zoonoses management: specific drivers of OH networks (green boxes); with exemplar quotations in different colours (orange, pink, light green and grey respectively)