There are 1,415 unique infectious organisms known to cause disease in humans. Of these, 868 (61%) are zoonotic diseases, transmissible between humans and other animal species. Zoonoses represent a growing global health concern, comprising a majority of newly discovered or newly evolved emerging infectious diseases. Drawing from socionatural and assemblage literatures, I approach zoonotic disease research through a focus on interrelated human and nonhuman networks of actors. Using a mixed methods approach, I examine the spaces of interaction where species meet, and assess the socioeconomic and ecological drivers that dictate multispecies individuals' interactions. This dissertation examines the impact of anthropogenic landscape change on human-environmental interaction associated with the transmission of Chagas disease, or American Trypanosomiasis. Specifically, I focus on human interaction with, and influence on, the distribution of the royal palm species Attalea butyracea. This palm species is the preferred habitat of the primary insect carrier of Chagas disease in Panama. Human-A. butyracea interaction and co-influence is well documented. Human communities throughout Central and South America, and the Caribbean, utilize this palm species for a number of goods and services. Additionally, increased A. butyracea propagation is associated with landscape disturbance linked to anthropogenic agricultural practices. Rather than a linear approach to disease transmission, wherein a human population becomes ill due to novel exposure to pathogens through their disruption of a "natural” environment, this research suggests that zoonotic disease is co-produced through a complex and iterative interaction of human and non-human agents.
