12 Veterinary Anthropology in the Small Ruminant CRS . P / Peru

The primary research mandate of the Small Ruminant CRSP (SR-CRSP) is to design and test appropriate and affordable ,echnology to enhance the productivity of resource-poor stockowners' herds of sheep, goats, llama, and alpaca in developing countries (DCs). Correctly conicxtualized in a social science of agricultural development (DeWalt this volume) and carefully targeted to reach its intended beneficiaries (DeWalt and DeWalt, Jamtgaard this volume), research to increase food and income from livestock products holds forth one of the greatcst promises for increased human well­ being throughout the developing world. Two-thirds of the globe's domesticited ruminants are found (WILRTC 1978:25) in DCs, where even "the poorest of the poor" in rural areas often keep at least a few small ruminants. To fulfill this promise, however, improvements in animal health are critical, for without them rarely can any other improvements in livestock productivity be realized. Especially in DCs, where animal diseases abound and where herds are more susceptible because of climatic and nutritional stress, stockraising "most of all ... requires a mastery of disease risks through good husbandry and adequate veterinary protection" (Moris 1981:79). The SR-CRSP has been a !eader in pioneering an excit! ag new field of study to address this need: cthtovetcrinary R&D, or "veterinary anthropology" (McCorkle 1986). As a named and recognized branch of research, v:eterinary anthropology is barely a dccadc old. 1 In broad topical and discipl;nary terms, the field spans ethnomedicine, ethnosemantics, and international agricultural development, drawing upon the skills of sociocultural (especially ecological and economic) anthropologists, linguists, and veterinary scientists (epidemiologists, immunologists, microbiologists, parasitologists, pathologists, pharmacologists, physiologists), plus specialists in still other fields such as animal husbandry, range science, water management, and agricultural economics.