Zoonotic anxieties: The cultural politics of Nepal's quest for pandemic preparedness

Abstract Based on fieldwork conducted in Nepal (2022–2024) and by paying attention to how local and transnational notions of epidemiological risk are deployed, this ethnography introduces the concept of “zoonotic anxieties” to make sense of the multi‐species relational ethos that contemporary global health regimes propose. Namely, at the intersection of “health security,” “pandemic preparedness,” and “One Health,” multispecies interactions are becoming subject to a resignification where cultural, racial, and geopolitical anxieties are deposited, expressed as fears over the potentially apocalyptic emergence of zoonotic disease. Nepal is produced through this lens as an epidemiologically risky terrain, receiving funds from international agencies to enhance its “disease surveillance” capacity with the underlying hope that, by identifying infectious diseases early, a foretold global disaster can be contained. These investments, however, have had little impact, producing conflicts between the country's claim to medical modernity and the shortcomings of its disease surveillance ambitions.