GSSC Seminar Series
11 June 2024
Transboundary Disease in the Pig World: A Triangle Between Pigs, Humans and a Virus.
Mridutpal Sinharay (University of Cologne)
12:00-13:00
India has a substantial pig population, with a considerable share concentrated in the north-eastern (NE) states. Viral diseases affecting pigs are a major cause of mortality, resulting in significant losses for the individuals involved in pig farming. One such disease is African swine fever (ASF). This is a highly infectious and severe disease of domestic pigs and wild boars that causes hundred percent mortality, implying that infected animals will eventually die. The emergence of the recent African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak in Asia which began in late 2018 poses a significant threat to endemic pig species such as Pygmy hog and socioeconomic security. This virus reached North-East India through porous borders. In this presentation I will be focusing on the triangular relationship between pigs (pygmy hog, wild boar and domestic pig), a virus (African Swine Fever), and humans, in and around Manas National Park, Assam, arguing that the African Swine Fever epidemic episode has shown how a change in one relationship in an ecosystem has knock-on effects throughout the system. How the disease alters the domesticator-domesticated relationship, predator-prey relationship and poses an existential threat to the critically endangered Pygmy hogs, is the focus of this presentation. Finally, from the vantage point of a transboundary disease, I address the complexity of ‘South Asia’ as a space, and whether it makes environmental sense or not.