9 April 2015
Anthopology
Professor Pollock
Article One
Wild Goose Chase—
The Displacement of Influenza Research in the Fields of Lake Pouyang, China
American Wildlife veterinarian, Scott Newman, and scientists, zoologist and WHO, World Health Organization, have studied Lake Pouyang in Southern China, which happens to be a migratory spot for birds. Researchers have done testing in the labs and have come to the conclusion that it was too controlled versus the natural environment they need to simulate. Therefor the researchers decided to do ethnography, where the environment is all but controlled. The hypothesis that was made that lake Pouyang would be the next epicenter for a pandemic. Scott Newman witness and learned that Lake Pouyang was a migratory place for domestic and wild birds. Nearby the domestic geese farmer would let his geese out, in the wild and they would come back for food, like chickens. This developed a husbandry of mixed species wild and domestic breeding. Not to mention while Scott Newman stayed he further he learned there were more factors of biohazard besides the bird breeding; a tilapia farm not too far that would feed their farmed fished poultry by-products, cheap feed, increasing the risks of a pandemic exponentially.
The fact that research has been done in the field is significant because there is no way to control all aspects of the environment, like in a lab setting, moving ethnography and anthropology together for avian flu research. Making the two very important towards prevention research. This is vital because China and the United States’ economies depend on