Renewing my passion for One Health through BVA’s Research Travel Scholarship

My experience conducting fieldwork in Japan  

During my Master’s, I chose to tailor my research project towards One Health, hoping to integrate my new knowledge in environmental management with what I had learned during my veterinary degree. My research focused on applying One Health to disaster management, as a means of expanding the use of One Health in health emergency preparedness.  

Thanks to the BVA’s Research Travel Scholarship, along with other sources of funding from my university, I was able to visit Japan and conduct my research interviews for this project in person. Although I had previously conducted fieldwork in India, Japan was an entirely new and exciting experience for me. Staying in Japan and travelling across various prefectures for my research was enriching both personally and intellectually. I am very grateful that I was able to engage with a different culture in my free time, and develop my technical research skills and capacity for cross-cultural communication. 

One of the most important parts of my research process was ensuring that I interviewed a range of experts across human and animal health, and environmental science. This included experts in disaster medicine, veterinary epidemiology, wildlife medicine and disaster risk reduction policy. Interviewing across such a diverse range of related disciplines and integrating these different types of knowledge ensured that my research reflected the interests and needs of all areas of One Health (i.e. not just human). I used these insights towards the development of an index that accounts for human, animal, and environmental protections in disaster policy. Being able to integrate both field and desk-based research was crucial for my project, and helped to solidify my understanding of my research topic. 

My hopes for the future: One Health research and capacity-building 

This experience enabled me to learn about the realities of One Health practice and implementation outside of the UK and opened my eyes to the urgent need for One Health capacity-building. Even within countries with established protocols for health emergencies and leadership in disaster management, One Health is a relatively new idea and not widely understood across government departments. There is a clear lack of recognition of more-than-human health and safety in disaster contexts, and how more-than-human professionals, including vets, can actively be involved in cultivating effective disaster prevention, response, and recovery strategies. Part of my project, and my reflections post-research, also questioned how these insights could be applied internationally, particularly in the context of global health. Countries where barriers to health and disaster resilience are already high will need substantial international and regional collaboration and support, especially if we are to extend these objectives of reducing disaster risk for people towards the vision of One Health. 

Completing this project has reaffirmed my interest in One Health. As I move on from my studies and into the working world, I hope to keep these reflections in mind and direct my career towards the health policy space, advocating for a more holistic and transdisciplinary approach to understanding and building resilience during health crises. I am eager to widen my understanding of the role of vets in shaping global health and, when I return to academia in the future, to continue conducting similar research. 

I would like to thank BVA once again for their support with my research. This experience has been truly invaluable, and I am so grateful that I was able to meet and connect with so many interesting professionals within the disaster management and One Health space.