Practising co-production and interdisciplinarity: Challenges and implications for one health research.
Tony Barnett, Dirk Udo Pfeiffer, Md Ahasanul Hoque, Mohammad Giasuddin, Meerjady Sabrina Flora, Paritosh Kumar Biswas, Nitish Debnath, Guillaume Fournié
Author Information
Tony Barnett: Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom; Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group, Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield AL9 7TA, United Kingdom; Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester, Ellen Wilkinson Building, Manchester M15 6JA, United Kingdom. Electronic address: abarnett@rvc.ac.uk.
Dirk Udo Pfeiffer: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group, Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield AL9 7TA, United Kingdom; Centre for Applied One Health Research and Policy Advice, College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Md Ahasanul Hoque: Department of Medicine & Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chattogram, Zakir Hossain Road, Khulshi, Bangladesh.
Mohammad Giasuddin: Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, Savar Union, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Meerjady Sabrina Flora: Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Paritosh Kumar Biswas: Department of Microbiology and Veterinary Public Health, Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chattogram, Zakir Hossain Road, Khulshi, Bangladesh.
Nitish Debnath: Teaching and Training Pet Hospital and Research Center, Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Sector #18, Road #114, Plot: 5B, Purbachol, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Centre on Global Health Security, Chatham House, 10 St James's Square, St. James's, London SW1Y 4LE, United Kingdom.
Guillaume Fournié: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group, Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield AL9 7TA, United Kingdom.
We review the nature of interdisciplinary research in relation to One Health, a perspective on human-animal health which would appear to merit close interdisciplinary cooperation to inform public health policy. We discuss the relationship between biological sciences, epidemiology and the social sciences and note that interdisciplinary work demands attention be given to a range of often neglected epistemological and methodological issues. Epidemiologists may sometimes adopt social science techniques as "bolt-ons" to their research without having a complete understanding of how the social sciences work. The paper introduces a range of social science concepts and applies them to the challenges of understanding and practicing participatory and local epidemiology. We consider the problem of co-production of knowledge about One Health and zoonotic diseases in relation to funding structures, working in large international teams and explore some of the often-neglected realities of working across disciplines and cultures. We do this in part by applying the concept of value-chain to the research process.
