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Higher education curricula can be designed to effectively leverage the context of small island states to enhance and deliver sustainable development and environmental health education, catering to workforce development, citizenry, and inclusivity. Small islands and developing states, in particular, are left behind in recognizing and promoting the linkages between environmentally sustainable development and the health of its people. This community case study highlights strategies of a Caribbean-based higher learning institution, leveraging the context of a small island state, to close this gap and create equitable access to integrated sustainable development and environmental health education. Tenets of Education for Sustainable Development theory underpin the pedagogical methodologies used in the delivery of the academic program. The curriculum draws on experiential learning, competency-based education, and diversity and inclusion, oriented to active student–student and student-practitioner engagements. Learning is facilitated through the effective dissemination of information, healthy interactions within a diverse community, professional engagements with multi-disciplinary practitioners, problem-solving, and formulation and presentation of perspectives and experiences relating to the Sustainable Development Agenda and Goals. Highly engaging and inclusive academic processes can accentuate students transitioning into the role of teachers, environmentally conscious leaders and citizens, and competent public health practitioners for the local and global workforces.

Central Asia is a vast geographic region that includes five former Soviet Union republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The region has a unique infectious disease burden, and a history that includes Silk Road trade routes and networks that were part of the anti-plague and biowarfare programs in the former Soviet Union. Post Soviet Union biosurveillance research in this unique area of the world has met with several challenges, including lack of funding and resources to independently conduct hypothesis driven, peer-review quality research. Strides have been made, however, to increase scientific engagement and capability. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are examples of countries where biosurveillance research has been successfully conducted, particularly with respect to especially dangerous pathogens. In this review we describe in detail the successes, challenges and opportunities of conducting biosurveillance in Central Asia as exemplified by our recent research activities on ticks and tick-borne diseases in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Microbial transmission through mucosal-mediated mechanisms is widespread throughout the animal kingdom. One example of this occurs with Hirudo verbana, the medicinal leech, where host attraction to shed conspecific mucus facilitates horizontal transmission of a predominant gut symbiont, the Gammaproteobacterium Aeromonas veronii. However, whether this mucus may harbor other bacteria has not been examined. Here, we characterize the microbiota of shed leech mucus through Illumina deep sequencing of the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene. Additionally, Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) typing with subsequent Sanger Sequencing of a 16S rRNA gene clone library provided qualitative confirmation of the microbial composition. Phylogenetic analyses of full-length 16S rRNA sequences were performed to examine microbial taxonomic distribution. Analyses using both technologies indicate the dominance of the Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria phyla within the mucus microbiota. We determined the presence of other previously described leech symbionts, in addition to a number of putative novel leech-associated bacteria. A second predominant gut symbiont, the Rikenella-like bacteria, was also identified within mucus and exhibited similar population dynamics to A. veronii, suggesting persistence in syntrophy beyond the gut. Interestingly, the most abundant bacterial genus belonged to Pedobacter, which includes members capable of producing heparinase, an enzyme that degrades the anticoagulant, heparin. Additionally, bacteria associated with denitrification and sulfate cycling were observed, indicating an abundance of these anions within mucus, likely originating from the leech excretory system. A diverse microbiota harbored within shed mucus has significant potential implications for the evolution of microbiomes, including opportunities for gene transfer and utility in host capture of a diverse group of symbionts.