Using cross-species vaccination approaches to counter emerging infectious diseases

Since the initial use of vaccination in the eighteenth century, our understanding of human and animal immunology has greatly advanced and a wide range of vaccine technologies and delivery systems have been developed. The COVID-19 pandemic response leveraged these innovations to enable rapid development of candidate vaccines within weeks of the viral genetic sequence being made available. The development of vaccines to tackle emerging infectious diseases is a priority for the World Health Organization and other global entities. More than 70% of emerging infectious diseases are acquired from animals, with some causing illness and death in both humans and the respective animal host. Yet the study of critical host–pathogen interactions and the underlying immune mechanisms to inform the development of vaccines for their control is traditionally done in medical and veterinary immunology ‘silos’. In this Perspective, we highlight a ‘One Health vaccinology’ approach and discuss some key areas of synergy in human and veterinary vaccinology that could be exploited to accelerate the development of effective vaccines against these shared health threats. Emerging diseases that affect humans often arise due to the crossover of infectious agents from animal reservoirs. In this Perspective, George Warimwe and colleagues discuss the concept of ‘One Health vaccinology’, an approach that aims to use key lessons from human and veterinary immunology to develop more effective vaccination strategies for emerging infectious diseases.