India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will publish a national action plan that puts 10 priority zoonotic diseases — Nipah, Mpox, Rabies, Leptospirosis, Scrub Typhus, Zika, Anthrax, Brucellosis, Kyasanur Forest Disease, and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever — under a single One Health coordination framework spanning human medicine, veterinary services, and wildlife surveillance.

The plan, currently in draft, will assign each government department a defined role in prevention, early detection, and outbreak control, according to the ministry. States and union territories will draft parallel state-level plans once the national document is finalized.

Which diseases are prioritized?

The 10 pathogens in the learning resource package include viruses (Nipah, Mpox, Rabies, Zika, KFD, CCHF), bacteria (Anthrax, Brucellosis, Leptospirosis), and a rickettsial organism (Scrub Typhus). All ten transmit from animals to humans — directly through contact, via vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks, or through contaminated food and water.

What does the plan cover?

The draft addresses nine workstreams:

• governance structure
• disease surveillance
• laboratory strengthening
• disaster preparedness
• rapid outbreak response
• public awareness
• research and innovation
• monitoring and evaluation
• financing

The ministry met with expert advisers to refine the draft. Recommendations included widening the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP 2.0), adding sentinel surveillance centers, expanding the laboratory network, and enabling cross-departmental data sharing.

What changes for veterinary practice?

For clinicians in India, the practical effect runs in three directions.

• Companion-animal impact: Rabies — included in the priority list — is the most direct caseload driver for small-animal practitioners, where dog-bite surveillance intersects with national post-exposure prophylaxis programs. Brucellosis in dogs and Anthrax exposure through companion livestock contact also fall under the new training module.
• Food-animal impact: Brucellosis, Anthrax, and Leptospirosis carry the heaviest livestock and dairy-cattle burden. Veterinarians and para-veterinarians will receive targeted training modules under the new e-learning package.
• Public-health role: Practitioners will become a formal reporting node in the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP).

"Zoonotic diseases still pose a major public health, animal health, and economic challenge for India and the world," said Dr. Rakesh Gupta, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Health. Prof. (Dr.) Ranjan Das, Director of the National Centre for Disease Control, said IDSP will be further strengthened so that "potential epidemics and diseases can be detected quickly."

What tools will the program deploy?

The ministry released two technical resources under the One Health program: a learning resource package and e-learning modules covering all 10 priority diseases. Target users include doctors, veterinarians, public-health officials, and frontline workers. The ministry will also deploy artificial intelligence and digital technology for early detection and outbreak prediction.

What is the timeline?

The ministry has not announced a publication date. Drafting consultations with experts have concluded, and state-level consultations are expected before the document is finalized.

The plan arrives as India continues to log sporadic Nipah and CCHF cases and as Brucellosis control remains a stated national livestock priority. The final action plan will test whether India's One Health machinery can move from policy document to operational surveillance across animal and human health systems.