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International Journal of Veterinary Research and Allied Sciences

2026 Volume 6 Issue 1
Creative Commons License

Spillover Risk Is Created by Interfaces Rather Than Pathogens Alone: A Multilevel One Health Architecture Linking Wildlife, Livestock, Companion Animals, Humans, Environmental Persistence, Contact Networks, and Host Susceptibility


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  1. Department of One Health and Spillover Risk Assessment, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
  2. Department of Veterinary Wildlife Medicine and Disease Ecology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Abstract

Zoonotic spillover is often framed as a property of pathogens: host range, virulence, receptor use, environmental stability, or evolutionary potential. Yet pathogen hazard becomes epidemiologically consequential only when ecological, animal, environmental, behavioral, and host conditions create an interface through which exposure can occur and infection barriers can be crossed. This article develops an original non-empirical One Health architecture that treats the interface, rather than the pathogen alone, as the operational unit of spillover interpretation. The synthesis separates wildlife reservoir context, livestock and companion-animal interfaces, human behavior, food and water pathways, environmental persistence, contact intensity, contact-network structure, host susceptibility, and pathogen compatibility, then considers how these dimensions can combine to amplify or constrain risk. The proposed architecture does not assign a universal score or assume that detected pathogen, environmental persistence, molecular adaptation, or animal infection is equivalent to human transmission. Instead, it organizes heterogeneous signals around interface states, evidence boundaries, and reassessment needs. Contemporary highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) in dairy cattle provides a high-resolution example, while broader viral, bacterial, ecological, and network evidence prevents the model from becoming outbreak-specific. The architecture is intended to support surveillance design, intervention targeting, and cross-sector interpretation before and during emergence. Its propositions remain context-dependent and require prospective, multispecies, route-specific, and externally replicated validation before predictive or operational performance can be claimed. Risk is consequently treated as dynamic and revisable as interfaces change through movement, husbandry, behavior, environmental conditions, surveillance findings, or intervention.


How to cite this article
Vancouver
Botha P, Wyk AV, Marais J. Spillover Risk Is Created by Interfaces Rather Than Pathogens Alone: A Multilevel One Health Architecture Linking Wildlife, Livestock, Companion Animals, Humans, Environmental Persistence, Contact Networks, and Host Susceptibility. Int J Vet Res Allied Sci. 2026;6(1):112-22. https://doi.org/10.51847/jYzO9raGnB
APA
Botha, P., Wyk, A. V., & Marais, J. (2026). Spillover Risk Is Created by Interfaces Rather Than Pathogens Alone: A Multilevel One Health Architecture Linking Wildlife, Livestock, Companion Animals, Humans, Environmental Persistence, Contact Networks, and Host Susceptibility. International Journal of Veterinary Research and Allied Sciences, 6(1), 112-122. https://doi.org/10.51847/jYzO9raGnB
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Since 2020, Eurasia Specialized Veterinary Publication has been dedicated to publishing rigorous scientific research in veterinary medicine, entomology, animal health, and related disciplines. Our journals offer a peer-reviewed home for original research, review articles, and short communications, spanning veterinary and clinical sciences, animal health and disease management, pathology, pharmacology, diagnostics, zoonotic diseases, epidemiology, and public health. Our entomology titles bring together work on insect biology, ecology and behavior, taxonomy and systematics, physiology, biodiversity and conservation, pest management, and medical and veterinary entomology. We also welcome interdisciplinary research that explores the connections between animal, human, insect, and environmental health — work that reflects the reality that these fields rarely stand apart from one another. In all that we publish, our aim remains the same: to support the exchange of meaningful, practical scientific knowledge within the international research community.