Pathogens are transmitted within and between species and communities, through direct contact, the environment or arthropod vectors. The territory of the Hwange LTSER is characterized, due to economic constraints, by low capacities of prevention, surveillance, diagnosis, treatment and control of animal and human diseases. In this context, health within the socio-ecosystem has become an important scientific theme, an area for improving the living conditions of members of local communities and an important factor for the preservation of biodiversity. By maintaining a strong biodiversity, in particular of large mammals, its waterhole network, and its high porosity between wild and anthropized compartment (unfenced protected area), Hwange is an open-air laboratory for understanding the keys to health of a strongly connected Human–Nature system. In this “eco-health” axis, we test the functional role of biodiversity in the transmission of pathogens and develop non-invasive methods for monitoring pathogens (responsible for foot-and-mouth disease and tick-borne diseases). We seek to characterize multi-species interactions and animal abundances on the anthropogenic gradient (joint research with the “Dynamics and Conservation of Biodiversity” axis) using classical tools in ecology, such as telemetry or camera traps. 
We combine AI approaches to characterize species via a partnership with a regional conservation NGO, and participatory science approaches by involving breeders and their local knowledge for the characterization of spoors of wild species at interfaces or even the creation of digital platforms for exchanging information to describe the movement of humans and livestock. A safe sample processing laboratory now exists at the Hwange LTSER station. In addition, to work in the field in remote areas, a mobile Human/Nature laboratory has been set up in order to carry out eco-epidemiology protocols in complete autonomy and security and while maintaining a cold chain for samples. The station also has strong connectivity with the molecular biology platform in Harare, set up by the University of Zimbabwe, veterinary services and CIRAD.
