The STEPS Centre has a range of research projects and resources which explore zoonoses (diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans), offering new theory as well as practical solutions.
Our work often considers the landscape of politics, policy processes and international responses to pandemics and resources cover diseases including avian influenza, swine influenza, Ebola, Lassa fever, henipavirus infection, Rift Valley fever, SARS and trypanosomiasis.
This page gives access to all our revelant resources, as well as links to pandemic research carried out by our colleague Stefan Elbe from the Centre for Global Health Policy, University of Sussex.
Research projects & consortia
- Project: Myanmar Pig Partnership Exploring links between zoonotic disease and changing pig production and consumption patterns in Myanmar.
- Programme: Livestock, Livelihoods and Health Exploring zoonoses in Tanzania, in the context of major transformations, including rapid urbanisation.
- Consortium: Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Multidisciplinary research integrating our understandings of zoonoses, ecosystems and wellbeing.
- Project: Avian ‘flu: the politics and policy processes of a global response The spread of avian flu in humans has raised alarm bells around the world. What lies behind global and national responses to avian flu, and how do they cope with uncertainty and surprise? What are the challenges and opportunities for future policy?
- Project: Epidemics: pathways of disease and response Epidemics emerge from changes in behaviour, land use, and interactions between humans and animals. What is behind the responses to epidemics, how can citizens contribute to the decisions made, and how can they better support poor people’s livelihoods and contribute to social justice?
- Project: Intensification Responding to zoonotic and related diseases in intensifying livestock systems: diverse framings and pathways.
- Project: Animal Disease Re-emerging transmissible transboundary animal diseases: comparing Rift Valley Fever with BSE.
- Project: Livestock A Socio-Technical Analysis of the Livestock Revolution: Innovation Pathways in Poultry Production in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Project: Bats From Framings to Pathways: Bats and the Construction of Risk in Ghana.
Books
- Avian Influenza: Science, Policy and Politics edited by Ian Scoones, 2010. STEPS Pathways to Sustainability series.
- Epidemics: Science, Governance and Social Justice edited by Sarah Dry and Melissa Leach, 2010. STEPS Pathways to Sustainability series.
- Security and Global Health, Stefan Elbe, 2012.
Pandemic Pages:
- Pandemic Influenza: Politics and Policy
- Pandemic Influenza: Resources
- Pandemic Influenza: Research themes
Papers:
- The International Response to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Science, Policy and Politics, Ian Scoones and Paul Forster
- The Political Economy of Avian Influenza Response and Control in Vietnam, Tuong Vu
- The Political Economy of Avian Influenza in Thailand, Rachel M. Safman
- The Political Economy of Avian Influenza in Indonesia, Paul Forster
- Cambodia’s Victim Zero: Global and National Responses to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, Sophal Ear
- Haemorrhagic Fevers in Africa: Narratives, Politics and Pathways of Disease and Response, Melissa Leach
- Epidemics for all? Governing Health in a Global Age, Sarah Dry
- HIV/AIDS, Forests and Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa, Joeleen Timko
Briefings:
- Zoonoses – From Panic to Planning‘ (pdf) An IDS Rapid Response Briefing
- One World, One Health? Learning from the International Response to Avian Influenza
- Epidemics: policy, justice and future challenges
- Epidemics for all? Governing health in a global age
- Test, test and test again: accumulating knowledge for vaccine development
- Veterinary science, transboundary animal diseases and markets: pathways for policy in Namibia
- Workshop highlights: Transboundary animal diseases and market access: the future of beef marketing in southern Africa
- Synthèse de l’atelier: Maladies animales transfrontalières et accès aux marchés : l’avenir du secteur du boeuf en Afrique australe
- Botswana’s foot-and-mouth disease and beef trade policy
- Market access policy options for FMD-challenged Zimbabwe
- Market access for livestock commodities: foot-and-mouth disease as a key constraint to market access – Republic of South Africa
- Les défis de l’industrie bovine en Afrique australe
- Challenges for the beef industry in southern Africa
Journal articles
- Governing epidemics in an age of complexity: Narratives, politics and pathways to sustainability, by Melissa Leach, Ian Scoones and Andy Stirling, Global Environmental Change, 2007
- Biosecurity, bioterrorism and the governance of science: The increasing convergence of science and security policy, Paul Nightingale and Catriona McLeish, Research Policy 2007
- Our epidemiological footprint: The circulation of avian flu, SARS and HIV/AIDS in the world economy, Stefan Elbe, Dec 2007
- Haggling over viruses: the downside risks of securitizing infectious diseases, Stefan Elbe, Sept 2010
- The art of medicine: Should health professionals play the global health security card? Stefan Elbe, July 2011
- Pandemics on the radar screen: Health Security, Infections Diseases and the Medicalisation of Insecurity, Stefan Elbe, 2011
Film
Events
- Workshop: Pandemic Flu Controversies: A Workshop to discuss lessons, policy implications and future challenges On 10-11 Jan 2013 we will be co-hosting an invite-only workshop focussing on avian ‘flu and swine ‘flu.
Media coverage / Socal Media
- Ian Scoones on Responding to Pandemic Threats (April 2010)
- The lessons of swine flu: Ian Scoones, the Guardian, 10 May 2009. A longer version is available on our blog
- Foot & mouth Erik Millstone writes for the Guardian
- Blog: Ecology and infectious disease dynamics – from the forests of Sierra Leone by Melissa Leach, 6 April 2009
- STEPS work featured in Eldis Health reporter, 10 March 2009: Epidemics for all? Governing Health in a Global Age
Information for journalists:
- Press notice: Animal-to-human disease transmission: The science and poverty implications, October 2012
If you are a media professional and require more information, please contact
Julia Day, STEPS Centre Communications Manager [email protected] | +44 (0)1273 915671 | +44 (0)7974 209148