A One Health approach to assess pesticide exposure levels in communities, domestic animals and wildlife in a rural landscape of Nan Province, Thailand

Abstract

The use of pesticides in agriculture has raised concerns due to their potential impact on human, animal and ecosystem health. Within a collaborative research framework, a study was co-constructed between researchers and local stakeholders in rural communities of Nan province (Thailand) to assess pesticide exposure levels. A total of 1,023 human serum samples were collected from volunteer participants. The level of exposure to organophosphate compounds showed that 12 (1.1%) and 134 (13%) individuals had hazardous or risky conditions, respectively. Generalized linear modeling revealed that age (older participants), chemical usage (spraying pesticide), habitat landscape characteristics (i.e., villages surrounded by orchard, forest, teak, rubber and rain-fed rice) and soil erosion appeared significant factors to explain the level of exposure. In addition, domestic animals (dogs and cattle) and wildlife (rodents and fishes) living in the vicinity were also assessed for their level of exposure. Applying the One Health principle helps understand pesticide exposure in people, domestic animals and wildlife by linking environmental characteristics at the local scale and thereby developing appropriate policies and regulations to be implemented.

Keywords:

• organophosphate
• glyphosate
• pesticide exposure
• acetylcholinesterase
• acetylcholinesterase paper test
• land use
• soil erosion
• good health and well-being

Acknowledgments

We thank Nan Provincial Public Health Office, Tha Wang Pha District Public Health Office, Tha Wang Pha Hospital and Saen Thong Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospital for supporting and facilitating research in the field. Specials thanks to the community leaders and the villagers for their involvement in this study. We thank Ada Roy, France internship student who participating regarding preliminary interview with villagers and participatory mapping activity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

CT and SM were supported by the project “Innovative Animal Health” funded by the Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA). KC was supported by National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT: N42A650216). We thank the support of the French ANR for the projects BiodivHealthSEA (ANR 11 CPEL 002) and FutureHealthSEA (ANR-17-CE35-0003-01), the M-Tropics programme funded by IRD. This work was partially financially supported by the Faculty of Veterinary Technology, Kasetsart University.