Table 1.

Characteristics of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and food safety and veterinary public health research

	WASH	Food safety and veterinary public health
Scope	To investigate deficiencies in water supply and quality, sanitation and hygiene to improve public health. Also, to evaluate the adequacy of hygiene standard to minimise foodborne diseases risks, and the role of water supply and sanitation access as enabling factors for improving child care, health and nutrition.	To pursue a comprehensive ‘farm to fork’, ‘stable to table’, ‘boat to throat’ approach to prevent and minimise risks of food contamination at all stages of the food chain from production to human consumption and waste management.
Sector	Human-centred with a strong anchor in the public health sector.	Focus on animal source foods, zoonoses and their respective risks.
Evolution	Historically, WASH research has focused on water-related disease transmission from human excreta (faecal-oral diseases). This has contributed to understanding the mechanisms of faecal-oral infection through waterborne, water-washed and water-based routes. Early intervention studies focused on the provision of infrastructure, and information, education and communication. Current research focuses more on behaviour change communication using bottom-up approaches, and incorporating the ‘A (Animals)’ into WASH more holistically.24	Veterinary public health traditionally looked at all food chain stages to identify where risks (eg, biological, chemical and physical) can emerge and how to prevent or mitigate them. The initial focus was on microbiological aspects with a strong technical dimension. Veterinary public health now looks at human behaviour more widely, bringing in social science aspects and economics to understand better practices and the motivations behind them. There is a (slow) move towards systems thinking, and a lot of progress in quantitative microbiological and epidemiological studies, detection techniques, etc.
Research methods	Interventions (eg, randomised controlled trials). Cross-sectional, questionnaire- based surveys. Longitudinal questionnaire-based surveys. Spot checks. Direct observation. Biological sampling and testing. Risk assessments. Qualitative research on behaviour, practices and perceptions, including participatory approaches.