Conference: University of Idaho Institute for Health in the Human Ecosystem Biology of Vector-borne Diseases Course

媒介传播疾病生物学（BVBD）课程的目标是培养研究生和教师、卫生从业人员、政府工作人员和政策制定者，使他们能够在复杂的生态系统中观察植物、动物和人类健康之间的生物相互作用和相似之处，并以此为基础，对目前困扰全球数亿人的疾病采取新的干预措施。病媒传播的疾病是由一种生物体（通常是昆虫）传染给另一种生物体的病原体引起的，病原体感染导致疾病。大多数这些疾病很少或根本没有有效的控制干预措施。通过简短的演讲、案例研究、动手建模练习和“邪恶挑战”的小组讨论，参与者了解了从亚细胞到生态系统尺度的植物、动物和人类媒介传播疾病之间的生物学联系。一年一度的BVBD课程由国际公认的专家教授给来自美国和世界各地的不同参与者，将所有受影响地区的个人联系起来。BVBD课程的独特之处在于其内容和方法，以激励不同的利益相关者和行动者同时和整体地解决植物、动物和人类媒介传播疾病作为相互关联的健康挑战。植物、动物和人类病媒传播的疾病导致各大洲粮食不安全，破坏牲畜生产，每年造成数百万人死亡。这些疾病系统在复杂的生态系统中错综复杂地联系在一起，包括密集城市化地区、从畜牧业到工业规模的农业生产、管理森林和森林砍伐，以及日益遭受极端野火、干旱、温度变化和灾难性天气事件影响的大片地区。在这些环境中，植物、动物和人类媒介传播疾病的共同生物学和共同驱动因素不仅使病理系统得以持续存在，而且还使植物和动物新物种的迁移和入侵能够加剧疾病的出现和重新出现。越来越多的人认识到，跨多个生物尺度的这些联系可以而且应该同时加以利用，以提高新的控制规划的效率、可持续性和功效，从而改善所有生物的健康结果。然而，我们在实现这些变化方面面临着巨大的智力和后勤障碍。BVBD课程提供了一个综合框架，以打破阻碍我们在复杂生态系统中应对这些疾病挑战的智力和沟通障碍。由于病媒传播的疾病给最缺乏服务和资源的人口和地区造成了不成比例的负担，因此至关重要的是，病媒传播的参与者和讲师既要反映受这些疾病影响的人口的多样性，又要反映各种专门知识和经验。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of the Biology of Vector-borne Diseases (BVBD) course is to train graduate students and faculty, health practitioners, government workers, and policymakers to view the biological interactions and parallels among plant, animal, and human health in complex ecosystems as a basis for novel interventions to diseases that currently burden hundreds of millions of people across the globe. Vector-borne diseases are caused by pathogens transmitted by one organism, often an insect, to another organism with disease resulting from pathogen infection. The majority of these diseases have few to no effective interventions for control. Through short presentations, case studies, hands-on modeling exercises, and group discussions of “wicked challenges”, participants learn about the biological connections across plant, animal, and human vector-borne diseases from the subcellular to the ecosystem scale. The annual BVBD course is taught by internationally recognized experts to diverse participants from across the US and around the world, connecting individuals from all impacted regions. The BVBD course is unique in its content and approach to inspire diverse stakeholders and actors to concurrently and holistically address plant, animal, and human vector-borne diseases as interconnected health challenges. Plant, animal, and human vector-borne diseases drive food insecurity across continents, devastate livestock production and cause the deaths of millions each year. These pathosystems are intricately connected in complex ecosystems that range from areas of dense urbanization, agricultural production from the pastoralist to industrial scales, managed forests and deforestation, and large regions that are increasingly subjected to extreme wildfire, drought, temperature shifts and catastrophic weather events. Within these environments, the shared biology and common drivers of plant, animal, and human vector-borne diseases enable not only pathosystem persistence, but also migration and invasion of new species of plants and animals that can fuel disease emergence and re-emergence. There is growing recognition that these connections across multiple biological scales can and should be leveraged concurrently to increase efficiency, sustainability, and efficacy of new control programs to improve health outcomes across all organisms. However, we face substantial intellectual and logistical obstacles in effecting these changes. The BVBD course delivers an integrated framework to break down intellectual and communication barriers that impede our ability to address these disease challenges in complex ecosystems. Because vector-borne diseases disproportionately burden the most under-served and under-resourced populations and regions, it is critical that BVBD participants and instructors reflect both the diversity of populations impacted by these diseases and a range of expertise and experience.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.