One Health: Silo Barriers to Implementation and How to Overcome Them

The One Health concept/approach must be central for governments to adopt collaborative, cross-sector policies in order to safeguard public health, biodiversity, and national security. This was addressed by the One Health Initiative in a previous article on why and how to apply the concept, which lays the groundwork in making the case, but it is a subject that needs further in-depth treatment.

Going deeper into the problem

The One Health concept is principally anchored in the interface of human, animal, and ecosystem health.

There are and have been distinct worldwide “silo” (isolated group, organization, department or team) barriers within and among One Health concept advocates during the 20^th and early 21^st centuries. While there are considerably more One Health approach advocates these days, self-oriented and self-serving elements exist, unfortunately. It is essential to overcome these impediments to basic One Health principles to allow for full-fledged collaboration between sectors of human, animal, environmental and other relevant disciplines.

Separate education systems, a lack of cross-disciplinary training, institutional severance, and variances in professional cultures are caused by these “silos” and give rise to communication disparities and fragmented approaches to solving complex public health (epidemiologic), biomedical clinical research, and interventional development problems; consequently, funding issues abound.

It is critical to have One Health principles inculcated into education programs, thereby promoting and fostering cross-sectoral partnerships with a shared understanding of the interconnectedness of all three health domains: human, animal and environmental health.

Breaking down the “silos”

Breaking down silos starts with promoting interdisciplinary education, i.e., integrating One Health principles into university/college curricula at all levels. This will help build a new generation of professionals likely to be “naturally collaborative.”

Multiple reputable advocates should foster cross-sectoral partnerships by encouraging joint, collaborative projects and symposia. A strong example comes from the Philippines rabies program, where government agencies, NGOs, international organizations like the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC), and local communities worked together to implement mass canine vaccinations and public awareness campaigns, ensuring that rabies education was incorporated into school curricula.

Specifically, this initiative used the Practical Inter-sectoral Linking tool to facilitate effective cross-sector communication. One Health advocate activists should help others recognize that environmental health, including the health of ecosystems and biodiversity across all species as well as pollution concerns — is inseparable from human and animal well-being. As a recent COP30 report reveals, climate change is spreading infectious diseases to new regions. Integrating human, animal, and environmental health more holistically can help break down silos.

At the global level, the Quadripartite collaboration — the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) — has developed national action plans and global strategies for promoting a One Health approach. These need to be followed and supported.

Another major milestone came in May 2025 with the adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, the first international treaty to formally integrate the One Health approach.

Here is a list of articles selected by our Editorial Board that have gained significant interest from the public:

However, even among professionals within One Health sectors, environmental health can have different meanings, which can complicate collaboration and policy design.

An academic evaluation, “Barriers to implementing One Health training programs: Experiences of university faculty and staff,” which avoids “paralysis by analysis,” highlights several structural obstacles that institutions face. The study identifies six key barriers:

“One Health is abused as a brand;
there is the potential for the erosion of the breadth of perspectives that were built into OH programs
there is inconsistent support for OH across levels of administration
the university business model impacts decision-making
community collaborations are stifled within current structures
faculty members’ workload agreements hinder the ability to provide transdisciplinary teaching.”

The study also identified opportunities that may help overcome these barriers:

“The elements of the OH approach can be delivered irrespective of the program being called “One Health”;
the breadth of perspectives involved in the program can be maintained through continuous evaluation;
and existing community engagement opportunities can be leveraged to support better transdisciplinary education.”

In academia, because faculty and professional staff determine if transdisciplinarity occurs in the classroom or the field, they must become knowledgeable practitioners of One Health themselves. One approach to accomplish that is by addressing, with their students and other trainees, a real world problem in a local, national or international setting that requires a variety of disciplines to understand and deal with.

Aldo Leopold, a pioneer conservationist, said:

“All the sciences and arts are taught as if they were separate. They are separate only in the classroom. Step out on the campus and they are immediately fused.”

Until those who train the next generation of scientists understand how One Health is put into practice, the disciplinary silos will remain intact.

In an article titled “Health Professionals Need to Collaborate,” lecturers in Interprofessional Education from the University of the Western Cape argue that transforming professional education is essential for breaking down silos. The authors note that adding interprofessional theoretical modules to training programs can help future health professionals develop the teamwork competencies needed to “leave their silos behind.”

Below is a list of sources to monitor that focus on the collaborative One Health approach and explicitly advocate for eliminating silo mentalities across human, animal, and environmental health:

One Health Initiative (OHI): The policy endeavors to stress relevant news and publications from all reliable past and present One Medicine-One Health sources worldwide. It incorporates historical considerations frequently omitted or purposely ignored by many newcomers on the One Health initiative scene. All members work pro bono. Notably, the OHI website was the first devoted to One Health and went online in October 2008.
One Health Commission (OHC): This non-profit organization works to connect and educate on the premise that “integration and collaboration of the highest possible level is the key to effectively addressing the difficult challenges to human, animal, and environmental health in the 21st century.” Their website provides resources, news, and initiatives centered on breaking down professional silos.
Several university and professional networks publish outstanding One Health newsletters, including The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Kansas State University, and the American Public Health Association. These platforms regularly share interdisciplinary research, case studies, and policy updates.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Publications: Numerous articles and frameworks are published on the NIH’s PubMed Central (PMC) database. These explicitly discuss the necessity of breaking down silos through collaboration and interprofessional practice. They contain scientific and policy-oriented articles highlighting practical strategies for developing collaborative frameworks in the workplace.

Let us all “leave the silos behind!”

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This article was authored by Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP ▪ Bruce Kaplan, DVM ▪ Thomas P. Monath, MD ▪ Thomas M. Yuill, PhD ▪ Helena J. Chapman, MD, MPH, PhD ▪ Craig N. Carter, DVM, PhD ▪ Becky Barrentine, MBA ▪ Richard Seifman, JD, MBA.