Ecology of emerging disease

1 Credit · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

We live in an era of rapid global change. As humans continue to alter the environment at an unprecedented pace, ecosystems are rearranging themselves and altering the face of infectious disease. In this course, we will first discuss how facets of human development including urbanisation, climate change, and agricultural industrialisation are impacting infectious disease in wildlife and livestock populations. Second, we will examine how humans and animals interact and discuss the impacts of changing ecosystem health on human health. Taking examples from animal behaviour, ecoimmunology, disease ecology, and the study of natural disasters, this course will bring you to consider how global change, ecosystem health, and public health are intertwined. You will learn how ecological systems are structured, how we rely on them, what we can do to exist in harmony with them, and the consequences of doing otherwise.