Reducing antibiotic use in livestock farming

Reducing the use or consumption of certain substances because of their dangers is a necessity for our environment. Sociologists Frédéric Goulet and Dominique Vinck coordinated the book New horizons for innovation studies: doing without, doing with less, published in 2023. With contributions from some thirty researchers, the book looks at innovation processes and how these can be transformed in different sectors such as agriculture, food, health...

Among these contributions, researchers Nicolas Fortané, Florence Hellec, Florence Beaugrand, Nathalie Joly, and Mathilde Paul have written a chapter on reducing the use of antibiotics in livestock farming.

Summary of the chapter:

Over the past decade, the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has ranked high on the political agenda in terms of health and environmental risks associated with agriculture. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics lowers the overall efficacy of these vital drugs in the modern pharmacopoeia and cause a therapeutic impasse. The main reason for bacterial resistance is the heavy use of antibiotics in human medicine and agriculture for more than half a century. Several attempts at regulation have been made in recent decades. Europe has seen significant reductions in antibiotic use in livestock farming since the 2010s, following the implementation of action plans.

This chapter reports on the socio-technical and socio-economic dynamics that have accompanied the transition towards this reduced antibiotic use. The authors present three farming systems - conventional industrial pig farming, quality-label chicken farming, and dairy farming under PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and/or Organic certification - to examine their similarities and differences. Whether and how the transition to lower antibiotic use is accompanied by changes in farmer socio-professional networks is examined. It is shown that reducing antibiotic use takes different paths depending on the sector, without necessarily calling into question the links between farmers and their traditional partners. The authors conclude that it is probably time to query the relevance of the “reduction” criterion in designing and evaluating policies to combat AMR, as it makes maintaining intensive and industrial production methods invisible.

References:

Frédéric Goulet, et Dominique Vinck, 2023. New horizons for innovation studies: doing without, doing with less. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Nicolas Fortané, Florence Hellec, Florence Beaugrand, Nathalie Joly, Mathilde Paul. Chapter 10: Reducing antibiotic use in livestock farming, in New Horizons for Innovation Studies, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp.168-181, 2023, Sociology, Social Policy and Education 2023

More information here.