Background Prioritizing zoonotic diseases is one of the emerging tasks for developing multi-sectoral collaboration within One Health. Globally, many efforts have been made to prioritize zoonotic diseases at national levels, especially in low resource settings. Prioritization of zoonoses has been conducted in different countries at different levels (i.e. national, regional and local) for different purposes. India has also initiated prioritization of zoonotic diseases at the national level. However, in a country like India with wide climatic variations, different animal-human and vector densities, it is important to look at these zoonotic conditions in local settings too. The present study aims to determine which zoonoses should be prioritized for collaboration between stakeholders in the Indian city of Ahmedabad. Methods The present study followed a participatory research method, entailing a stakeholder workshop for prioritizing zoonotic diseases in Ahmedabad. It was carried out through a facilitated consultative process involving 19 experts in zoonoses from the human and animal health systems during a one-day workshop in September 2018. To prioritize the zoonotic diseases, the One Health Zoonotic Disease Prioritization (OHZDP) tool of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was adopted. The Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and decision-tree analysis were used to rank the diseases. Results Out of 38 listed zoonotic diseases, 14 were selected for prioritization. These were scored and weighed against five criteria: severity of disease in humans, potential for epidemic and/or pandemic, availability of prevention and/or control strategies, burden of animal disease existing inter-sectoral collaboration. The top five diseases that have been prioritized for Ahmedabad are Rabies, Brucellosis, Avian Influenza (H5N1), Influenza A (H1N1) and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever. Sensitivity analysis did not indicate significant changes in zoonotic disease prioritization based on criteria weights. Conclusion Prioritization of zoonotic diseases at the local level is essential for development of effective One Health strategies. This type of participatory disease prioritization workshop is highly recommended and can be replicated in other Indian cities, as well as in other low and middle-income countries.

Inter-sectoral collaborations are now recognized as key importance for health system strengthening and health system integration, globally; however, its application in the domain of One Health remains unclear. Over time, as the complexity of the health system has increased within the domain of One Health approach, there is an urgent need for developing collaboration for successful implementation of the One Health. This review focuses on the global One Health collaboration strategies and discusses which type of collaboration might work for the health system of India. We conducted a review in the following three steps: identification of key One Health Collaboration strategies, documentation of the global initiatives and scoping into the initiatives of India in the domain of One Health. We found three major types of collaborations discussed in the One Health literature: level-based collaboration (individual, population or research), solution-based collaboration, and third-party-based collaboration. Twenty-five key global and six Indian One Health initiatives or collaboration strategies are documented in the present review. Although, many initiatives are being undertaken globally for disease prevention and control from the viewpoint of One Health; however, in India, solution-based approaches during emergencies and outbreaks and some sort of level-based collaborations are in place. It is high time to develop a sustainable level-based collaboration integrated with third-party based collaboration within the larger domain of One Health for a resilient health system.