Graduate Course in One Health Modelling for Emerging Infectious Diseases

OMNI-RÉUNIS and Fields Institute have partnered up to launch a two-part graduate course on One Health Modelling for Emerging Infectious Diseases in Fall 2022 and Winter 2023. The courses are open to all students, researchers, and professionals interested in learning more about One Health Modelling for Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Part II in Winter 2023

This course is an extension of One health Modelling for Emerging Infectious Diseases Part I. This course introduces students to mathematical modelling of infectious diseases in One Health, including vector borne diseases, livestock diseases, and waterborne diseases. Infectious diseases models are developed to track infection and transmission in animal, plant, and human populations. Particular attention is paid to infections that can be transmitted to humans in animals from their environment, including insects, livestock, and affected water sources. Public health mitigation, as well as animal and environmental pathogen control are discussed, and the models are extended to include vector control, treatment and immunization of livestock, other vector and livestock control disease control mechanisms (i.e., culling), and environmental treatment. Students will learn to formulate, analyze, parameterize, and validate quantitative models for infectious disease processes and data. Applications include malaria, zika virus, west nile virus, lyme disease, foot and mouth disease, avian influenza, cholera, Hepatitis A virus, and typhoid fever. Approaches involve computer simulation, differential equations, individual-based models, least squares, likelihood, matrix equations, Markov processes, and stochastic processes. Computing labs cover simulation and programming methods in specific software programs that are popular in the field of Infectious Disease Modelling. Course discussions in model evaluation and appraisal of current literature include opportunities for reflection and communication. Students will have the opportunity to collaborate with their course colleagues on group projects.

Prerequisite: Familiarity with epidemiology and public health. Some training in disease modelling or permission of the instructor.

Class Structure: Classes will include lectures, group discussion and computer labs. Group project presentations will occur in the last week of each section of the course. The course schedule includes both synchronous and nonsynchronous classes. 

Starting week: February 6-10, 2023

Ending Week: May 15-19 2023

Please note that the course instructors are able to offer support in both English and French

Registration: Please register and you will get the zoom link in the registration confirmation email

Deadline to apply:  February 13, 2023

Course Description: