The modeller community in animal health needs to share good modelling practices, develop new methods to face current modelling challenges, work on solutions for simpler and better data access, facilitate model comparison and ensemble modelling, and enhance interactions with end-users and stakeholders. To that end, we propose to federate the scientific community working on epidemiological modelling in animal health in a new international network: the ModAH Hub. We propose to start with concrete priority actions built upon existing projects, giving progressively room to new ideas and actions. Working groups will concern transversal topics and may draw on case studies of specific diseases or groups of diseases (i.e. Vector-borne diseases, Endemic diseases, Avian flu, African swine fever (ASF), Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Bovine tuberculosis, Peste des petits ruminants (PPR)).
Objective of the ModAH Hub initiative
Federate the scientific community working in epidemiological modelling in animal health to:
- Encourage more collaboration and friendly competition rather than rivalry
- Share good modelling practices
- Work on solutions for a simpler and better access to data useful in animal health
- Develop new methods and solve current modelling challenges in animal health
- Facilitate model comparison and ensemble modelling
- Enhance interactions with end-users and stakeholders
Provisional priority working groups (transversal topics)
- Modelling practices
- Data
- Parameter inference
- Ensemble modelling & intervention ranking
- Forecasting
- Within-host dynamics
- Phylodynamics
- Inter-species interface
- Multi-scale modelling
- Modelling-policy nexus
- Interconnecting epidemiological models and other model types