Universität zu Köln

van Engelen, Wisse ORCID: 0000-0002-2426-5180, Weber, Andreas ORCID: 0000-0002-9106-9438 and Turnhout, Esther ORCID: 0000-0002-2190-2076 (2026). Provincialising Foot-and-Mouth Disease: The Construction of the African Buffalo as Disease Reservoir in Botswana, 1961–1976. Global Environment. pp. 1-34. Liverpool University Press. ISSN 1973-3739

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Abstract

Global foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) control policy is largely based on nineteenth-century British ideas about the disease. This partiality risks creating the impression that these ideas of the disease are universal. In this article, therefore, we provincialise the notion of FMD by describing how veterinarians came to know the disease in colonial and postcolonial Botswana. Specifically, we focus on the 1960s and 1970s to write a postcolonial, more-thanhuman history that details how the African buffalo was identified as the reservoir host for the disease. We point to the local interactions between veterinarians and the buffalo, but also describe the ‘external’ pressure that veterinarians felt to find a culprit. As such, we present a geographically nuanced and historically informed understanding of FMD that challenges the assumed universality of British ideas about FMD, and exposes the ways in which these ideas shaped and continue to shape environmental and socio-economic realities in Southern Africa.

Item Type:	Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code van Engelen, Wisse wvanenge@uni-koeln.de https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2426-5180 UNSPECIFIED Weber, Andreas UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9106-9438 UNSPECIFIED Turnhout, Esther UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2190-2076 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-812587
Identification Number:	10.3828/whpge.63881453971800
Journal or Publication Title:	Global Environment
Page Range:	pp. 1-34
Number of Pages:	34
Date:	2026
Publisher:	Liverpool University Press
ISSN:	1973-3739
Language:	English
Faculty:	Central Institutions / Interdisciplinary Research Centers Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Global South Studies Center Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 4: Außereuropäische Sprachen, Kulturen und Gesellschaften > Institut für Ethnologie
Subjects:	Customs, etiquette, folklore Civic and landscape art Geography and travel
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language foot-and-mouth disease ; disease reservoir ; veterinary medicine ; colonial science ; Botswana English
Related URLs:	['eprint_fieldopt_related_url_type_publication' not defined]
['eprint_fieldname_oa_funders' not defined]:	ERC Rewilding
Funders:	ERC Rewilding
Projects:	Rewilding the Anthropocene
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/81258