Animal waste management and health risks in subsistence farming communities of rural Nepal
Layla Kwong, Professor
Public Health
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2023 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2024.
In rural, low-resource settings globally, such as subsistence farming communities in Nepal, diarrheal diseases are common, driven by exposure to fecal pathogens (bacteria, viruses, and other harmful organisms found in human and animal waste) in their household. In subsistence farming households where households frequently own livestock and poultry, handling animal feces may increase exposures to fecal pathogens. However, it's unclear how different waste management practices impact exposures and health outcomes in these settings. In this project, we conducted household surveys to characterize animal waste management practices and health outcomes, and collected environmental samples to quantify fecal contamination in the household environment. We aim to understand how animal waste management practices may be associated with levels of fecal contamination in different household-level exposure pathways.
Role: Students will assist with cleaning and merging survey data and lab data, and creating a codebook for all variables in the final dataset. This position can be in-person or remote.
Qualifications: Interest in public health, biostatistics, and/or environmental sciences; willingness to learn and be meticulous. Prior data management and processing experience in R is required. Coursework in biostatistics, data science, or epidemiology is a plus.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Heather Amato, Post-Doc
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Environmental Issues Biological & Health Sciences