Drinking-water under a "One Health" lens: quantifying microbial contamination pathways between livestock and drinking-water

One Health Water is a project taking a one health approach to understanding disease transmission from livestock to people via water. It addresses the potential drinking-water contamination risks to human health in rural sub-Saharan Africa, where people and livestock often live in close proximity.

Our researchers are working with colleagues from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), University of Southampton and VIRED International and are supported by the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund.

OneHealthWater project aims to:

> explore new ways of understanding disease transmission from livestock to people via water
> bring together different perspectives from public health, animal science, microbiology and social science to tackle this issue
> develop tools to manage livestock contamination risks around rural water sources and households.

Preliminary fieldwork was carried out in rural Kenya, building on an ongoing study that is simultaneously recording human and livestock disease in ten villages. The fieldwork tested different techniques to identify contamination hazards from livestock, alongside water quality testing and recording of diarrhoea in children. These techniques included the use of GPS collars to track cattle movements, maps of hazardous areas created by the communities themselves, and also checklists for recording signs of livestock hazards at water sources and around water stored in the home.

Since measurement of water contamination used in such areas is based on bacteria found in both livestock and humans, the project will also work on affordable ways of testing for micro-organisms that are specifically found in livestock faeces versus those found in human faeces. If successful, such techniques could be used to investigate the importance of different sources of faecal contamination of drinking-water. This in turn could help manage the safety of rural water sources like wells and rainwater and better protect drinking-water stored in the home from contamination through livestock.

In recent years, microbial source tracking (MST) has been proposed as a way of identifying the source of faecal contamination of drinking and bathing waters. Many different methods have been proposed, which vary widely in cost and their ability to pin-point specific contamination sources. A method recently developed at the University of Brighton (in collaboration with the University of Barcelona) uses traditional laboratory methods to identify contamination sources at relatively low cost.

Publications

Modelling seasonal household variation in harvested rainwater availability: a case study in Siaya County, Kenya
Weiyu Yu, Peggy Wanza, Emmah Kwoba, Thumbi Mwangi, Joseph Okotto-Okotto, D. Gomes da Silva & Jim Wright, 2023, NPJ 
Clean Water, 6(1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41545-023-00247-9

A spatiotemporal analysis of cattle herd movement in relation to drinking-water sources: implications for Cryptosporidium control in rural Kenya
Jessica Floyd, Emmah Kwoba, Samuel Thumbi, Joseph Okotto-Okotto, Peggy Wanza, Nicola A Wardrop, Weiyu Yu & Jim Wright, 2022, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29(23), 34314-34324
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-17888-3

A mixed methods study to evaluate participatory mapping for rural water safety planning in western Kenya
Joseph Okotto-Okotto, Weiyu Yu, Emmah Kwoba, Samuel Thumbi, L.G. Okotto, Peggy Wanza, D. Gomes da Silva & Jim Wright, 2021, PLoS ONE, 16(7), e0255286
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255286

Effect of inter-observer variation on the association between contamination hazards and the microbiological quality of water sources: A longitudinal study
Joseph Okotto-Okotto, D. Gomes da Silva, Emmah Kwoba, Samuel Thumbi, Peggy Wanza, Weiyu Yu & Jim Wright, 2020, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(24), 1-15
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17249192

A longitudinal study of the association between domestic contact with livestock and contamination of household Point-of-Use stored drinking water in rural Siaya County (Kenya)
Diogo Gomes da Silva, James Ebdon, Joseph Okotto-Okotto, Frederick Ade, Oscar Mito, Peggy Wanza, Emmah Kwoba, Thumbi Mwangi, Weiyu Yu & James Wright, 2020, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 230
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2020.113602