Paper short abstract:

This paper critiques the dominant public health discourse on the outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal (India) through a combination of ethnographic and archival work.

Paper long abstract:

The dominant discourse of the public health fraternity is that migratory birds, especially wild ducks, are the natural reservoir of avian influenza viruses. It has been reported that direct or indirect contact of domestic birds with wild migratory waterfowl has led to frequent outbreaks of the epidemic. The author of this paper examines the hypothesis that the outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal in mid-January 2008 was caused by the flight of migratory birds, which led to the quick spread of the virus in 14 districts of the 19 districts of West Bengal within a span of one and half months. Through an ethnographic study, the author explores whether there is an alternative 'narrative' to the outbreak of avian flu. He also looks at the role of local agencies and the logic of the market in understanding the epidemiology of local outbreaks. Further, the author also investigates the socio-political and ecological settings as well as the professional practices in order to understand the nature of the outbreak. In this study, he enquires whether medical anthropology helps us to shed new light on the outbreak of bird flu. And what are the complexities that arise from a parochial understanding of an epidemiology under the rubric of a scientific discipline?