In One Health risk assessment, hazard identification is best described as...

• A. Recognizing potential health hazards and sources of exposure.
• B. Determining dose-response relationships only.
• C. Mapping disease incidence in humans alone.
• D. Estimating economic costs.

Answer: (A)

Hazard identification in One Health risk assessment means spotting potential health hazards and where exposure might occur. It involves listing what could cause harm—such as pathogens, chemicals, toxins, or other biological or physical agents—and identifying the sources and pathways of exposure across humans, animals, and the environment. This step lays the groundwork for everything that follows, because you need to know what could potentially cause illness and how people or animals might come into contact with it.

For example, consider a zoonotic risk like a virus circulating in poultry. Hazard identification would name the virus as a hazard, note the possible health effects in both birds and humans, and identify exposure sources and routes—contact with infected birds, contaminated surfaces, or aerosols in markets or farms. This sets up subsequent steps to assess how much exposure might occur and what dose could lead to illness.

The other options fit different parts of risk assessment: dose–response relationships are explored later to understand how the severity of harm relates to the amount of exposure; mapping disease incidence in humans belongs to epidemiology, not hazard identification; estimating economic costs relates to the economic impact side of risk analysis.