Intersectoral, transdisciplinary training for sustainable solutions to vector-borne diseases in complex ecosystems

Plant, animal and human vector-borne diseases drive global food insecurity and cause millions of deaths each year. These pathosystems are intricately connected, sharing processes at the subcellular and organismal scales and common drivers and consequences at the ecosystem scale. There is growing recognition that these biological connections can be leveraged to increase sustainability of control programs to improve health outcomes across plants, animals, and humans. However, we face substantial obstacles in effecting these changes. With our Biology of Vector-borne Diseases (BVBD) course, we seek to break down intellectual and logistical barriers that impede progress in developing solutions across the gamut of vector-borne diseases in complex ecosystems. To this end, we shift the focus from individual pathosystems to an understanding of the connections and parallels across pathosystems and scales of study. We reinforce this integration through hands-on exercises in which the participants engage with each other in groups with diverse expertise and experience to identify solutions to vector-borne “wicked challenges” to plant, animal, and human health. Collectively, we seek to stimulate successful interventions, namely nucleating diverse teams and working together across social and institutional domains that reflect the world regions and populations most impacted by plant, animal, and human vector-borne diseases.