The emergence and re-emergence of diseases, in which 60 to 70% are zoonotic, raise a number of economic, envi-ronmental, and public health issues, especially important as breeding systems are in close contact with wildlife. In the Corsican pastoral system, free roaming livestock and wild animals share the same resources, creating a high potential risk of contact and inter-specific transmission of pathogenic agents. Researchers are facing the challenge of thinking more efficient ways to design sanitary risk assessments and disease management systems, by adapting classic epidemiological/ecological approaches to systemic conceptions, that take into account more socially oriented components (such as stakeholder’s strategies and knowledge, production system choices, etc.). We aim to present an original approach to understand the practices and representations of farmers and hunters, as potential factors for the emergence of diseases. Such an approach would be complementary to ecological and epidemiological approaches for evaluating the risk of contacts between animals and the risk of pathogen transmission. Indeed, it provides a systemic understanding of the issues on emerging diseases, and tries to renew scientific and technical paradigms for the management of these diseases.