Opening Pandora's Box at the Roof of the World : The Past and Present of Avian Influenza Science

• Main Author: Canavan, Barbara C.
• Other Authors: Guerrini, Anita, Hamblin, Jacob, Rubert, Steve, Bernell, David, Osborne, Michael, History, Philosophy, and Religion, Oregon State University. Graduate School
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: Oregon State University
• Subjects: Avian influenza > History; Avian flu
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/5425kd941

By means of a case study and historical analysis, this dissertation examines the past and present of avian influenza. By integrating disconnected histories of human and animal influenza, this dissertation links historical insights with the concerns of contemporary avian flu science. It is not only a natural history of avian influenza but also a snapshot of avian flu science in progress. To understand human influenza, its path and potential, one must be aware of how avian influenza viruses came to play such a central role in human influenza ecology. Building on a history of influenza in both its human and avian forms, a contemporary case study examines the unprecedented emergence of an avian virus among wild birds on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (Roof of the World) beginning in 2005. Events at Qinghai stimulated an interdisciplinary and international approach among researchers, and accelerated the use of technological tools to track avian influenza. Evidence suggests that the escalation of global bird flu events is not merely a matter of chance mutations in flu viruses but is the result of antecedent conditions related to human activities. Events and science at Qinghai serve as real-world examples to understand avian influenza and to envision the unintended consequences of human and natural forces over the coming decades. This synthesis of avian influenza history and science can serve as a resource for historians of medicine, environmental historians, biologists, virologists, ecologists, and the broader public.