Srinivasan Krithika, Kurz Tim, Kuttuva Pradeep, Pearson Chris
Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, England, United Kingdom.
Palgrave Commun. 2019 Dec 3;5:152. doi: 10.1057/s41599-019-0358-y.
In this article, we reflect on the institutional and everyday realities of people-street dog relations in India to develop a case for decolonised approaches to rabies and other zoonoses. Dog-mediated rabies in Asia and Africa continues be a major concern in transnational public health agendas despite extensive research and knowledge on its prevention. In India, which carries 35% of the global rabies burden and has large street dog populations, One Health-oriented dog population management programmes have been central to the control of this zoonotic disease. Yet, rabies continues to be a significant problem in the country. In this article, we address this impasse in rabies research and practice through investigations of interactions between people, policy, and street dogs. Drawing primarily on field and archival research in Chennai city, we track how street dogs are perceived by people, explore how these animals have come into interface with (public) health concerns over time, and examine the biosocial conditions that frame people-dog conflict (and thereby rabies). These analyses create a picture of the multidimensional character of people-dog relations to offer new insights on why One Health-oriented rabies initiatives have not borne out their full promise. In effect, the article makes a case for a shift in public health orientations- from intervening on these animals as vectors to be managed, and enabling multispecies habitats. This, we argue, requires the decolonisation of approaches to dog-mediated rabies, and expanded conceptions of 'healthy more-than-human publics'. In conclusion, the article chalks out broader implications for public health approaches to zoonoses in a world marked by mutual risk and vulnerability that cuts across human and nonhuman animals.
在本文中，我们思考了印度人与流浪狗关系的制度及日常现实情况，以论证采用去殖民化方法应对狂犬病及其他动物源性疾病的合理性。尽管对亚洲和非洲由狗传播的狂犬病已有广泛研究及预防知识，但它仍是跨国公共卫生议程中的一个主要问题。印度承担着全球35%的狂犬病负担，流浪狗数量众多，以“同一健康”理念为导向的流浪狗数量管理项目一直是控制这种人畜共患疾病的核心。然而，狂犬病在该国仍然是一个重大问题。在本文中，我们通过调查人与政策以及流浪狗之间的互动，来解决狂犬病研究与实践中的这一僵局。我们主要借鉴钦奈市的实地研究和档案研究，追踪人们对流浪狗的看法，探究这些动物如何随着时间推移与（公共）卫生问题产生关联，并审视构成人狗冲突（进而导致狂犬病）的生物社会条件。这些分析勾勒出了人狗关系的多维度特征，为理解为何以“同一健康”理念为导向的狂犬病防治举措未能完全实现预期效果提供了新见解。实际上，本文主张公共卫生方向应有所转变——从将这些动物作为需要管控的传播媒介进行干预，转变为营造多物种栖息地。我们认为，这需要对由狗传播的狂犬病防治方法进行去殖民化，并拓展对“健康的非人类群体”的概念认知。总之，本文阐述了在一个人类与非人类动物都面临相互风险和脆弱性的世界中，公共卫生应对动物源性疾病方法的更广泛影响。
