Paper Information

One Health research on the social, behavioral, and political factors that drive zoonotic disease risk are often limited in conflict-affected and politically insecure locations, and within informal and extralegal economies. This study therefore examines zoonotic disease risk in eastern Ethiopia, where conflict, political insecurity, and forced displacement are prevalent, where pastoralist economies are mostly informal or extralegal, and where camels are central to diets, health practices, and livelihoods. Using multi-sited qualitative data collection between 2021 and 2024, we examined camel herding, transit, trade, care and slaughter, as well as the production and consumption of various camel products including milk. We found that humans and camels in eastern Ethiopia lived and moved in close proximity, and unpasteurized milk remained a staple food and common medicinal product. Slaughtering, grazing, herding, trading and exporting of camels involved mobility and frequent multispecies interactions including with wildlife. Camels were often sold in informal or extralegal markets, and camel dairy products were also typically processed, sold, and consumed outside of regulated markets, licensed facilities, and disease surveillance mechanisms. Internal conflicts, political insecurity, and displacement throughout eastern Ethiopia increased livestock grazing and travel within national parks, wildlife preserves, and remote trails and secondary roads in wilderness areas-potentially also increasing multispecies interactions. Qualitative research including ethnographic data collection helped us examine unexpected contexts where multispecies interactions occurred, as well as the specific policy changes and conflict dynamics that potentially shape zoonotic disease risk. Long-term ethnographic engagement also helped build trust with interlocutors and therein explore politically sensitive and extralegal dynamics.