Veterinary Anthropology? Searching for New Departures in Animal Disease Control

On 28 April 2025 Ludek Broz gave a keynote lecture titled ‘Veterinary Anthropology? Searching for New Departures in Animal Disease Control’ at the GARA scientific meeting hosted by FAO in Rome.

Abstract

Infectious animal diseases are often seen as dominantly in the epistemic and managerial jurisdiction of epizootology. In this talk I will propose that social sciences and humanities in general and social anthropology in particular can play a crucial role in both understanding and control of those diseases. Using African swine fever as an example, I will argue that the ‘soft’ anthropological knowledge-making method of ethnography, based on long-term participant observation, generates deep insights into why wild boar and its habitat became ASF virus reservoir in Europe. Focusing on the Czech practice of game animal feeding, I will expose central-European hunting as complexly nested in metabolic environments of post-socialist industrialized monoculture, while recognising both, the effective and affective dimensions of feeding and how the two translate into the identity of the hunter and the prey-to-be. Taking the local hunting cultures seriously, I will demonstrate how social anthropology proves instrumental for analysis of and intervention in the fourth epidemiological cycle of African swine fever and speculate about its further potential to inspire fresh departures in animal disease control.