Chapter 10: Reducing antibiotic use in livestock farming
Résumé
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.