Vector-Borne Disease Spatial Epidemiology, Disease Ecology, and Zoonoses

Dear Colleagues,

Disease vectors and their associated pathogens are found across a wide range of environments around the globe, placing more than half of the human population at risk and directly impacting nearly a quarter of the world’s population each year. Vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases. Furthermore, arboviruses represent 37% of all emerging human diseases, with 75% of new emerging diseases originating in animal populations. Arthropods including mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and flies constitute the most recognized disease vectors, and efforts to control their populations result in a tremendous public health burden. In fact, climate change models predict that new and emerging vector-borne diseases will rapidly increase and greatly impact human health, owing to potential changes in weather patterns and temperature that are conducive to increases in vector populations, the expansion of available vector breeding habitats, and decreases in pathogen incubation periods. Spatial ecology incorporating aspects of epidemiology, disease ecology, arthropod vector ecology, and zoonoses provides an important context for understanding vector-borne diseases, directly incorporating temporal and/or spatial components for analyzing trends and patterns among hosts, pathogens, and vectors.

The goal of this topic, “Vector-Borne Disease Spatial Epidemiology, Disease Ecology, and Zoonoses”, is to publish manuscripts that directly incorporate scale (time and/or space) into understanding vector-borne disease patterns and processes and, ultimately, how these patterns and processes potentially impact human and/or animal health. Manuscripts may focus on disease vectors, arthropods of medical and veterinary importance, vector-borne pathogens, zoonotic diseases, emerging diseases, mathematical/statistical modeling, etc., provided that spatial epidemiology and disease vectors are functionally incorporated into the thesis of the manuscript. Manuscripts that incorporate a One-Health perspective are particularly welcome.

Dr. Chad L. Cross
Dr. Louisa Alexandra Messenger
Topic Editors