Emily Nixon (University of Liverpool)

Comparative insights from modelling animal and human infectious diseases and applications for One Health

Having started out my research career in the world of mathematical modelling of infectious diseases in livestock, I shifted my focus to human disease when I joined JUNIPER as an Early Career Researcher in 2020 as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. While there were many similarities in modelling animal and human disease, I also noticed some differences. These were most visible in the motivation for doing the work, the funding and data that are available, in (some of) the modelling approaches used, in the metrics observed and in the wider interest for the application. In this talk, I would like to discuss the similarities and differences that I have experienced. I will then go on to examine how these two fields, along with other relevant fields, can strengthen each other to further develop infectious disease modelling within a One Health framework, taking into account the health of humans, animals and their shared environment, in order to work towards the prevention of future pandemics.