One health anthropological approach to rat-related knowledge and practices in Cambodia and beyond in Southeast Asia
PITCH
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT
When we talk about ecological issues, biodiversity loss and wildlife, we use to focus on threatened animals – that are mediatized to soften us up – more than animal pests – that cause indifference, disgust, animosity, or fear ; like rodents. Rodents are reservoirs of several important zoonotic diseases. They are widely hunted, farmed and traded in Southeast Asia, which questions the health risks associated with these practices. In Cambodia, farming, “rat-catching” as well as hunting and consumption of wild rats seems to simultaneously involve formal, informal, livelihood, business, legal, illegal, local, and regional trade. But this human-rat relationship, and the different facets of the issue, aren’t well documented yet. This proposal aims to better understand the various perceptions and practices involving rodents in Cambodia using an anthropological approach of One Health. That means to conduct an ethnographic survey of local knowledge (also called Traditional Knowledge or IndigenousScience) by working in a collaborative and transdisciplinary approach, to understand what kind of relationship people have with animals and how they take care of themselves to prevent diseases (contamination, spread, spillover). It means how people acknowledge risks, what kind of hygiene and safety practices they use. By analyzing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment, this project aims to document how sociocultural local knowledge is linked and articulated with scientific knowledge. This means what local people know about biomedical and scientific data, how they understand and construe it. We want to build a network and involve experts in human, animal, and environmental health in Cambodia and beyond to share their scientific knowledge on rodents.
PROJECT IN ACTION
Task 1: Ethnographic survey of human-rat relationships in Battambang, Kampong Cham and Bassac The goal is to identifying the various kinds of practices involving rats by focusing on what Cambodians do with rats, where these rodents come from, where they go, how they are handled and treated. Rats are embedded in economic traffic flow, this project includes tracking the chain by understanding how and where the animals move about in Cambodia, as well as what connections there are with bordering countries. That also includes studying what kinds of other animals are involved (for doing what). For example, rats are used to feed crocodiles on farms because they are less expensive than snakes. These investigations provide us a strong fieldwork to analyze the social representation of rats (rural-urban perceptions, differences between sites and between species), zoonoses (infection, spillover) and health practices (risks assessment, prevention, safety practices) by conducting in-depth ethnographic research in multi-field (observations and interviews with people who are engaged in the rat chains).
Example 1 of field trips done for the anthropological survey: By word of mouth, Piseth Kum and Meriem M’zoughi found two rat sellers at Kien Svaay local market (Kandal province), and they also met three hunters in the surrounding area. In addition, they went together close to the Vietnam border at the end of road number 21 where traders cross the border, then to Koh Thum (Kandal province) where they encountered a middleman who butchers rats and sells them to the local market or sends them alive to Vietnam. At his place, they met four hunters, knowing that three of them were butchers too. They also went to a crocodile farm in the same village where rat remains are sold. The first ethnographic main field site of the survey is the butcher’s house where Meriem M’zoughi conducted observations and interviews with Piseth Kum. During the butchering routine, anyone wears a protective garment against rats or seems to be preoccupied with rat corpses or bloodstains. The butchers perceive rat butchering as a common thing, so Meriem M’zoughi investigated the perceptions of the clean and the dirty from the butchers’ point of view.
Rat skinning
Example 2 of field trips done for the anthropological survey: On the Internet, Meriem M’zoughi and Piseth Kum found tens of hunting videos from all around the country and, also, hundreds of videos from a rat farmer located in Battambang province. Piseth Kum helped Meriem M’zoughi to prepare to meet the farmer and to interview him on her own. She went alone to Battambang where she met a dozen of rat sellers. She encountered the farmer at his house which is about one hour’s drive from Battambang city. This place is the second ethnographic main field site of the survey where she conducted observations and interviews too. The discussions with the farmer helped Meriem M’zoughi to continue her investigations on the perceptions of the clean and the direct, and also to study the various identities of rats (difference between domestic and wild rats, and from different locations: rice field, forest, house, sewer…)
Rat farm
Task 2: Collaborative approach to collect and cross information and knowledge on rats in the area. It means how each discipline (human, animal, and environmental sciences) grasps and reads the topic of rodents. This proposal includes the organization of a workshop on the 25th & 26th of October 2022 to bring together researchers and academics working in this field, mainly in Cambodia, but possibly in the neighboring countries of Thailand and Vietnam.
Presentations during the workshop: This workshop took place on the at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge in Phnom Penh, with the participation of thirteen speakers online and in person from 6 countries. Various disciplines were also represented, including anthropology, geography, ecology, law, conservation, history, helminthology, and virology:
– Opening from André Spiegel, the Director of the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge
– Alexander Stuart (Researcher in Agroecology at the Pesticide Action Network in England) gave a talk on “Ecologically-based rodent management to reduce rodent damage to rice in Cambodia” on the influence of some agricultural technics on rodent behaviors to understand, for example, if a fence to protect a rice field can conduct to increase damage to other crops.
– Meriem M’zoughi gave a talk entitled “From hunting and trading to farming: What is the Cambodian people’s relationship with rats?” on the social perceptions of rodents, as well as the hunter’s socio-professional profile.
-Vincent Herbreteau spoke about current and traditional methods to trap rodents in Cambodia, Thailand, Lao PDR, and Myanmar with a presentation entitled “The art of rat traps”.
– Kittipong Chaisiri (Assistant Professor in Parasitology at Mahidol University in Thailand) with “Rodents as a model in disease ecology: A brief summary of rodent and rodent-borne disease studies in mainland Southeast Asia during three ANR projects (CERoPath, BioDivHealthSEA, and FutureHealthSEA)”.
– Serge Morand (Research Director in Health Ecology at CNRS and based in Thailand) who presented “Rodents: global trade and emerging diseases” on the increasing number of outbreaks of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, as well as the main role of bats, rodents, and birds as reservoir hosts.
– Claire Lajaunie (Researcher in Environmental Law at INSERM in France) gave a final talk called “Wildlife legislation: rats, pests or protected species?” on the illegal wildlife trade including the legislation and the perception of wildlife, and she emphasized the blind spot regarding rodents despite legislation about rodenticides and the market of wildlife/domestic animals like bamboo rats in China for example. – Sithun Nuon (Technician at the Virology Unit of Institut Pasteur du Cambodge) with a talk on “Diversity, Community Structure, and Distribution of Small Mammals in Cambodia” on the diversity, spatial distribution, and variation of rodents in Cambodia depending on the structure of the habitat (deciduous forest, evergreen forest, rice field, and agricultural lands).
– Limmey Khun (Technician at the Virology Unit of Institut Pasteur du Cambodge) gave a talk on “Case of Coronavirus in rodents and domestic animals at Koh Thum district, Kandal province”.
– Oudamdaniel Yanneth (Research biologist at the Virology Unit of Institut Pasteur du Cambodge) about the HEPAR project, the acronym for “Rodents as reservoirs of hepatitis (HEV), arenavirus and other rodent-borne viruses and risks assessment of infection in Human in Cambodia”.
– Chea Sokha (Researcher in wildlife conservation at WCS in Cambodia) gave a talk about “Conservation, health, and communities in Cambodia” on how to understand how the rodent community changes over time, and how the mixing of forest and synanthropic species in disturbed zones could be a potential for spillover.
– Cecile Lantican (Researcher Director in Communication at the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication in the Philippines) spoke about “Characterizing Human-Animal Exposure in Hmong and Lao Ethnic Groups in Lao PDR”,
– Kanokwan Suwannarong (Researcher in Public Health, Director of Supa71 in Thailand) gave a talk on “Rodent contact and consumption in Thailand and Lao PDR”.
– Matheus Alves Duarte Da Silva (Postdoctoral researcher in History at the University of St Andrews in Scotland), entitled “Between Economy and Health: Justifying and Managing the Global War Against the Rat (1894-1945)”. By explaining measures used against rats in the past, this presentation demonstrated how the war against rats has impacted the current vision of this animal in global policy about sanitary practices around the world. The workshop was full of debates between presentations.
Workshop discussions
Workshop presentations (a)
Workshop presentations (b)
NEXT STEPS
The OHARAT project leader will submit a scientific article on the results of the anthropological survey and extend her research under a new OHSEA dynamic: AFRICAM Cambodia.
Publishing a booklet in Khmer and English which contains the main results of the ethnographical survey as well as the other scientific investigations.
The research leader also plans to submit other grant applications to pursue her subject in greater depth.
