Work

Dangerous Liaisons: Unveiling the Co‐Constitution of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Industrial Meat Production

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have intensified over the last decade, spotlighting the concept of “epicentre” as a means of locating disease origins. Although epicentre thinking can facilitate rapid interventions, it often overlooks the political‐economic and ecological forces driving outbreaks. Drawing on critical geography, political ecology, and global supply chain analyses, we reconceptualise the epicentre as “a set of relations rather than a place”, emphasising how capitalist production, ecological disruption, and pathogen circulation intersect. From this relational standpoint, epicentres emerge as intersections of multiple capitals, rather than isolated points. Using HPAI in global poultry production as an illustration, we argue that biosecurity measures shaped by epicentre thinking often bolster industrial expansion while deflecting systemic critique. We conclude with a five‐point research agenda for a relational geographical approach to disease outbreaks, highlighting turnover times, cost and risk distribution, producer incorporation, labour regimes, and governance mechanisms.

Source: Antipode

DOI: 10.1111/anti.70021

Authors: Mariel Aguilar‐Støen, Jostein Jakobsen, Mads Barbesgaard, Rebecca Leigh Rutt, Ada Eldevik‐Stjernqvist

Institutions: University of Oslo, Lund University, University of Copenhagen

Language: English

Topic: Zoonotic diseases and public health

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,520

Funder: Norges Forskningsråd