OneHealth Modeling Working Group (OHM)

Working Group leader: Aniruddha Belsare

Group members: Craig Miller, JT Van Leuven, Ryan Long, Katherine Lee

Originated: September 2017

Description:

Given the interconnectedness of animal health, environmental health and human health and well-being, it is necessary to investigate the ecological contexts of animal disease systems that have public health, conservation or economic implications. Such host-pathogen systems are highly complex and heterogeneous, and often, our understanding of such systems is fraught with uncertainties. Our main objective is to develop and use analytical, model-based approaches to better understand complex animal disease systems, and translate insights gained into actionable outcomes for effective disease management. One of our current project (Craig Miller, J T Van Leuven & A Belsare) focuses on canine rabies: We are developing a model-based approach that will combine data from field studies (genomic, demographic) to better understand the transmission dynamics of canine rabies virus in dogs in India. The overarching goal is to make a major contribution to reducing rabies caused deaths in India and elsewhere. Another project (with Ryan Long) focuses on big horn sheep pneumonia modeling.

We will submit a NSF-EEID proposal in November 2018. We are preparing a manuscript on demographic assessments of free-ranging dog populations using Mark-resight techniques.