Paper short abstract:

The Jaraguá Indigenous Land is the smallest indigenous territory in Brazil and is surrounded by the city of São Paulo. This paper will focus on describing the interspecies relations between dogs and rats in the villages and their relevance to complexify understandings about leptospirosis.

Paper long abstract:

The Jaraguá Indigenous Land (Brazil), inhabited by the Guarani-Mbya people, is the smallest indigenous territory in Brazil and is surrounded by the city of São Paulo, the biggest metropolis in the South Hemisphere. In recent years, the villages have recorded some cases of human leptospirosis, and this paper will focus on describing the interspecies relations between dogs and rats and how they can complexify the epidemiological understandings about leptospirosis maintenance and transmission between animals. The villages are overpopulated by a multitude of dogs, which are abandoned by the urban citizens in the nearby streets and end up finding shelter and food inside the villages. According to the Guarani-Mbya people, the large population of dogs, the precarious villages infra-structures and the surrounding urban environment are related to frequent rat sightings near their houses. In epidemiological studies, rats are known as the main reservoirs of Leptospira species bacteria. Beyond the serovars of the canine leptospirosis, dogs have also been reported to be relevant carriers of different Leptospira species. Dogs and rats are known by the Guarani-Mbya people for their messy behaviour of scattering rubbish across the villages while scavenging for food inside bins and refuse bags. There are also stories of rats stealing food from dog bowls and dogs chasing and killing rats in the villages. This paper will interrogate how the dog-rat relations observed by the Guarani people can help us to define the global emergence of panzootics through the entanglements between human and animals socialities in local ethnographic contexts.