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Review
. 2025 Jul 31.
doi: 10.1007/s10393-025-01738-6. Online ahead of print.

A Compendium of One Health Terminologies

Olayide Abraham Adeyemi  1 , Hasnat Sujon  2 , Tariq Oluwakunmi Agbabiaka  3
Affiliations
Review

A Compendium of One Health Terminologies

Olayide Abraham Adeyemi et al. Ecohealth. .

Abstract

The global acceptance of the One Health (OH) approach has surged over the past two decades, leading to a proliferation of OH-related activities. A consequence of this growth is the increase in discipline-specific terminologies emerging in the OH lexicon to become lingua franca. However, some of these terms are used ambiguously, and interpreted broadly, thereby hampering systematic OH coordination. This article elucidates the semantics of eight fundamental terminologies, including 'One Health', 'One Health Systems', 'One Health Framework', 'One Health Core Competency', 'One Health Education/Curriculum', 'One Health Professional/Workforce', 'One Health Study/Research', and 'One Health Governance/Legislation'. The major findings of this study are that while there is a consensus on OH definition and OH framework usage, OH systems remain ambiguous despite frequent mentions. Core competencies and educational models are disparate, thus requiring harmonization, and a putative global OH governance structure is being defined through international organizations.

Keywords: One Health frameworks; One Health governance; One Health systems; One Health terminologies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: OAA, HS, and TOA were all beneficiaries of the European Union funded Erasmus International Joint Master Degree in Infectious Diseases and One Health (IDOH+) scholarship between 2021 and 2023. Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate: Not applicable.

References

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