Antibiotic policies in the UK dairy industry: A voluntary industry-led approach in action

Today a major topic of concern is the use of antibiotics in food animals and itslink with the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in humans. Public health agencies across the globe frame the ‘misuse and overuse’ of antibiotics in agriculture as major human driver to the development of AMR in animals, humans and the environment.  This research reconsiders the progress claimed by the UK veterinary antibiotic surveillance and sales reports. Moving beyond statistical realities, it examines how the UK’s industry-led approach is taking shape in practice. A multi-sited ethnographic methodological framework is used to examine at first how the UK has consolidated around an industry-led approach, in contrast to some other European countries who used legislation to tackle persistent antibiotic practices. Second, taking the UK dairy industry as case study, interview and observational methods are used to understand how dairy policies are formulated by the dairy sector and dairy supply chains and how the policies are practised by farmers and veterinarians. This study reveals how antibiotic ‘misuse and overuse’ in agriculture is far from a behavioural matter, with solely farmers and veterinarians to blame. Instead, antibiotic use in food animals is embedded in complex economic networks that constrain radical changes in dairy husbandry management and antibiotic use on farms. To achieve responsible farming and improve antibiotic practices, the UK government should take responsibility and work more closely with the UK livestock sectors to understand what regulatory and financial support is needed. The research is carried out by Stephanie Begemann (Phd obtained in December 2019) in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, UK. It was funded by the National Institute of Health Research Health Protection Research Unit.