Kelly Cameron-Harp at work with a piglet in Haiti.
Kelly Cameron-Harp, a Cornell Animal Science graduate from the Class of 2015, went on to obtain a Master of Science in One Health from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Dan Brown’s course, “Feeding the World,” ignited her initial interest in One Health topics. The course touched upon the value of livestock as key international development tools, and it was in this course that she first made the connection that improving animal health has a lasting influence on human health.
Cameron-Harp’s interest in global animal health and One Health increased further during a trip to Haiti in 2015, where she witnessed firsthand how environmental health, human health, and animal health are intensely interconnected. During her time in Haiti, she saw the importance of livestock to families in resource poor regions. She was also informed of a re-emerging swine disease, Porcine Encephalomyelitis, that is threatening Haiti’s pigs. It became clear that this disease is also a threat to human health in Haiti, as it is threatening farmers’ incomes and familial food supplies.
Cameron-Harp teaching best agricultural practice in Haiti.
These initial exposures to One Health-related topics led Cameron-Harp to study One Health for her master’s degree at an institution with a focus on animal health and diseases in the Caribbean. Her thesis, “Developing and Validating an Interview Format to Obtain Insight into the Utility of Pigs: A pilot study in St. Kitts,” focused on how the utility of livestock to farmers in resource poor regions can be accurately determined using participatory methods, and how understanding the utility of livestock can improve the success of future interventions. Knowing why a farmer uses a particular species of livestock, what the role of that species is (food, source of wealth/“living bank account”, community status symbol) and the various techniques used with the animals can inform the investigator about which future approaches, whether animal health practices or community interventions, are most likely to be successful.
Cameron-Harp’s project resulted in a set of pre-tested interview questions which can be used in farming communities of resource-poor regions around the world. Additionally, the participatory methods she chose prevent researchers from superimposing their own knowledge into the dialogues- instead, the participatory methods employed promote self-advocacy of the local peoples.
This research, Cameron-Harp hopes, will be repeated in other Caribbean countries including Haiti. Additionally, she hopes that her research regarding the utility of livestock will bring attention to the importance of pigs in Haiti and, in doing so, illustrate the need for further research regarding swine diseases in the region. These future investigations, she hopes, will prevent the devastation that occurred with past swine diseases in Haiti.
“In developing nations,” Cameron-Harp says, “livestock disease outbreaks can have devastating impacts on local economies and, within resource limited households, disease outbreaks result in increased levels of poverty. With newly emerging and reemerging diseases threatening human and animal populations alike, animal health, including the health of livestock, must be a primary focus for veterinarians, researchers and physicians.”
Cameron-Harp is working on publishing her work, and is investigating both PhD and DVM programs as the next step in her academic career. She is interested in conservation medicine and continuing to work in One Health.
This article is written by Kelly Cameron-Harp, Cornell Animal Science graduate from the Class of 2015. For more information regarding Kelly’s One Health involvement and her research, contact her at: Kvc8@cornell.edu