Zoonotic Anthropology and Multispecies Infrastructures along China's Belt and Road

2026-07-22

This project develops a zoonotic anthropology by examining the intersection between infrastructure development and multispecies relations along China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It addresses the increasing risk of zoonoses due to infrastructural expansions reshaping ecosystems and interspecies dynamics. The construction of roads, railways, and ports creates new contact zones between humans, animals, and microbes, amplifying the risk of zoonotic spillover. This is critical as zoonoses like COVID-19 pose global health threats and the BRI's transnational reach introduces new cross-cultural interactions which shape experiences and public health responses. Understanding this is vital for preventing future pandemics and promoting sustainable development. Key knowledge gaps: how different actors along the BRI—wildlife, livestock, pathogens, and humans—interact within newly created infrastructural spaces, heightening zoonotic risk; and how China’s health diplomacy (vaccines and TCM hospitals) shapes biosecurity and preparedness. The research focuses on three contact zones in several ethnographic sites: 1) Wildlife trade for Traditional Chinese Medicine (Nepal, Myanmar) 2) Industrialisation of meat exports (Pakistan, Kazakhstan) 3) Wet markets (Cameroon, DRC). Ethnographic fieldwork and interviews will be combined with ecological and epidemiological data analysis, and multimodal methods used in sensitive contexts like the illegal wildlife trade. Key Objectives: 1) Analyse how BRI infrastructure heightens zoonotic risk. 2) Explore zoonotic transmission pathways in wildlife trade, meat exports, and wet markets. 3) Examine China's health diplomacy in shaping biosecurity and medical ontologies. The project contributes to zoonotic anthropology, infrastructure and multispecies studies, and global health security. It will offer policy recommendations for managing zoonotic risks, improving biosecurity, and promoting sustainable infrastructure development.

Norway

2026-02-15