'We need to approach health from a more preventative angle'

Lidwien Smit has been serving as Professor of One Health and Environmental Epidemiology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine since 1 November 2021. She studies the health of people and animals in the context of their environments. That's certainly quite a challenge in the Netherlands, a densely populated country with heavy traffic and extensive livestock farming. 'We try to keep our research as neutral as possible by conducting measurements in real-life situations. For example, we measure air quality in and around stables.'

Lidwien Smit has been researching intensive livestock farming in the Netherlands and its potential health implications for local residents for almost fifteen years. Her new professorship ties in seamlessly with these issues. 'Among other subjects, we're currently studying goat farming and its correlation with pneumonia. We're working in collaboration with RIVM, Nivel and the University of Wageningen. We've known about the high incidence of pneumonia around goat farms since 2009, but we still haven't found the cause. The Ministry and industry are mainly interested in identifying the causes of these pneumonia infections so that we can prevent them more effectively.' 

Diminished pulmonary function

In 2014, Smit and her colleagues collected a large number of samples and performed pulmonary function tests on people living near livestock farms. They are currently repeating those steps: 'We've been conducting visits to those same people since the summer. It's all been a bit chaotic because of the pandemic, but we've already visited a few hundred people and hope to retest at least a thousand. That will allow us to monitor the development of their pulmonary function over time.'

Your pulmonary function gradually deteriorates after age 30. 'That happens to everyone and it's perfectly normal', Smit reassuringly explains. 'However, other research has shown that factors like poor air quality and smoking can accelerate that decline enormously. We want to know whether livestock farming and poor air quality in the living environment also affect people's pulmonary function.' 

Concerns about bird flu

Efforts are also underway to develop new project proposals in case of a new pandemic, Smit explains. Does the Dutch livestock sector constitute a potential risk? 'Among other things, we're currently studying avian flu. That's another zoonosis that's also been getting a lot of attention; we're worried it might spread to humans like the coronavirus. Although that doesn't happen often, foxes were also infected during the current outbreak. That's not a good sign. Whether the virus will actually spread to humans is another matter, but we live in a country with lots of poultry, waterfowl and people. How can we control those risks? Are there any smart technologies that would allow us to quickly measure specific viruses in the environment? That's what we're trying to figure out.'

Protecting the health of people, animals and the environment, isn't it hard to reconcile all those interests?

'That's true. We're operating on a pretty complex playing field with lots of different interests and financial and legal consequences. I'm mainly focused on making sure we do sound research on the potential human health effects of livestock farming. Nitrogen isn't just an environmental issue, it's also a public health concern and we need to make sure that's reflected in government policy. People are becoming increasingly aware that intensive livestock farming is a growing source of air pollution in the Netherlands. Traffic is becoming relatively cleaner, but we're not seeing that much change in the agricultural sector. An increasingly large proportion of fine dust emissions are generated by agricultural activity. Organisations like the Dutch Lung Fund are increasingly recognising that fact. As a professor, I want to draw attention to certain problematic aspects of intensive livestock farming.'

What should we be mainly focusing on?

'From my perspective, human and animal health comes first. We obviously don't want people to get sick because of someone else's economic activities. That's not up for debate, but that does mean you need to accurately determine the extent to which emissions by farms can lead to health problems. We try to make sure that our research is as neutral as possible by taking measurements in real-life situations. You need to maintain your scientific integrity at all times.'

So what makes One Health research so fascinating?

'It's mainly about the diversity. We're constantly facing new problems that require a new approach. For example, there was a COVID outbreak among minks, and now we're dealing with avian flu again. I like to take a multidisciplinary approach, to examine problems from different angles. There are also important social aspects to our research. We need to take a more preventive approach to health in order to prevent people from getting sick. Unfortunately, that doesn't really seem to be a priority in the Netherlands.'

So what do you enjoy doing outside of work?  

'I like cycling, road cycling is one of my hobbies. I love being out in the open air, and that includes hiking. On weekends I do things with the kids, and I also love reading. Still, I don't always have the headspace for that, so I only manage on holiday

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