Regions where wildlife and human populations interact intensively are hotspots for zoonotic disease emergence, with wildlife experiencing welfare harm through surveillance, culling, and habitat loss.
Zoonotic spillover hotspots are locations where the interests of human health, wildlife welfare, and ecosystem integrity converge and often conflict. Wildlife in these areas experience surveillance-associated welfare harm, habitat loss that drives them into human-dominated landscapes, and sometimes culling as disease control. A genuine One Health approach recognises that wildlife welfare, ecosystem health, and human health are interconnected: protecting wildlife habitat reduces spillover risk more effectively than surveillance and culling, and is simultaneously better for animal welfare. The pandemic period accelerated recognition of this connection, but policy change has been slower.