Wild Vaccinations: Veterinary and Hunter Intersections in Response to Classical Swine Fever in Japan

In 2018, wild boars (Sus scrofa) infected with classical swine fever in Japan became the focus of veterinary intervention for the first time. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork on the oral vaccine distribution project and rethinking biosecurity, this article examines the possibility and limits of relating to wild animals in the era of unpredictable infectious disease. The implementation of "wild vaccination" demonstrates that the practical limitations of the vaccine drove veterinization. Yet this was not a unidirectional expansion of veterinary power; rather, it constituted a process of re-learning veterinary expertise, enacted in novel alliances with hunters.