This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: In eastern Ethiopia, pressures like conflict and displacement are changing how people and their camels travel, shifting livestock into new environments and potentially influencing the risk of zoonotic diseases spreading between animals and humans. A new study co-led by George Mason University infectious disease expert Amira Roess explores these connections as part of a broader look at how politics, culture, economics and international trade factor into zoonotic disease risk in livestock-herding communities.
The study was published in Social Science & Medicine. For this paper, researchers interviewed more than 100 people involved in camel herding, care, milking, trading and slaughter across eastern Ethiopia. They identified several factors that could affect zoonotic disease risk: Because diseases that spread between animals and humans account for most emerging infectious diseases, the researchers emphasize the importance of a "One Health" approach, which considers human, animal and environmental health together.
"When we think about diseases moving between animals and people, we tend to focus on the pathogen or the animal carrying it. This study shows why we also need to understand the broader and more complex circumstances that affect how people and animals interact," said Roess, professor of global health and epidemiology in the Department of Global and Community Health at the College of Public Health. Lauren Carruth et al, Diets, politics, and camel economies: a qualitative One Health study of zoonotic disease risk in pastoralist regions of eastern Ethiopia, Social Science & Medicine (2026).
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2026.119644 Journal information: Social Science & Medicine Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile → Master's in physics with research experience.
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