Use of mental models to identify one health priorities for wildlife health management in California

Operationalizing a One Health framework for wildlife health requires interdisciplinary collaboration and developing a common vision of the system to prioritize management actions and policies. Mental models are simplified knowledge structures that provide a way to generate common understandings of complex social-ecological systems. We conducted a mental model exercise with wildlife and zoonotic disease experts at a workshop to graphically map the relationships of key factors that influence the emergence and occurrence of disease in California wildlife. We found that experts had similar visions about what determinants of health should be included in the models, but low agreement on how these determinants connect, signaling the need for more system-level research and communication among scientists and decision makers. Participants also identified human expectations components of the system (e.g., policy, collaboration, agency capacity) as important determinants of wildlife health, though these components were not as well connected to the system as ecological components. Our research design and analysis demonstrate how mental models can be used to chart a course from common understanding to policy impact in complex One Health systems where cooperation is the key to effective management and governance.