Eight challenges in modelling disease ecology in multi-host, multi-agent systems

• Disease ecology has largely focused on single population studies.
• Interactions between multiple hosts and agents are important but poorly understood.
• Methods that incorporate novel data are required to understand community dynamics.
• Challenges cover maintenance, within-host competition and food web dynamics.
• Emphasis is also placed on estimation of cross-species transmission.

Many disease systems exhibit complexities not captured by current theoretical and empirical work. In particular, systems with multiple host species and multiple infectious agents (i.e., multi-host, multi-agent systems) require novel methods to extend the wealth of knowledge acquired studying primarily single-host, single-agent systems. We outline eight challenges in multi-host, multi-agent systems that could substantively increase our knowledge of the drivers and broader ecosystem effects of infectious disease dynamics.