num_pages: 256
description: After experiencing the SARS outbreak in 2003 Hong Kong Singapore and Taiwan all invested in various techniques to mitigate future pandemics that involved myriad cross-species interactions between humans and birds. In some locations microbiologists allied with veterinarians and birdwatchers to follow the mutations of flu viruses in birds and humans to create preparedness strategies while in others public health officials worked toward preventing pandemics by killing thousands of birds. In Avian Reservoirs Frdric Keck offers a comparative analysis of these responses tracing how the anticipation of bird flu pandemics has changed relations between birds and humans in China. Drawing on anthropological theory and ethnographic fieldwork Keck demonstrates that varied strategies dealing with the threat of pandemicsthe stockpiling of vaccines and samples in Taiwan simulating pandemics in Singapore and monitoring viruses and disease vectors in Hong Kongreflect local geopolitical relations to mainland China. In outlining how interactions between pathogens birds and humans shape the way people imagine future pandemics Keck illuminates how interspecies relations are crucial for protecting against such threats.
language: English
title: Avian Reservoirs: Virus Hunters and Birdwatchers in Chinese Sentinel Posts
publisher: Duke University Press