People, pigs and parasites in New Guinea: relational contexts and epidemiological possibilities

Within Papua New Guinea the relationship people have with their pigs varies between societies. These differences arise in the earliest phase of rearing piglets and result in domestic animals whose primary attachments are to other pigs, to places or to people. For Papua New Guineans, different pig management regimes fulfill ecological and social needs. In addition, however, the ways in which pigs are raised and managed, and the presence or absence of a local population of wild pigs, have consequences for the exposure of both domestic pigs and people to parasites that they may host. Effective control of disease-inducing parasites should be attentive to society-specific relationships between people and their pigs.