Production without medicalisation: Risk practices and disease in Bangladesh aquaculture

Abstract

Disease burdens threaten future food production, particularly so in the case of aquaculture. Reducing disease burden needs to consider not only the incidence of disease but also the socio‐economic effects of changing farming practices. Employing a multi‐method approach to farms in SW Bangladesh, we argue that understanding disease risk practices are central to any attempt to reduce disease burdens and unsustainable treatments of disease.

Understanding antibiotic use: practices, structures and networks

“…Following earlier ethnographies that described antibiotic practices, 34–37 more recent studies in diverse global settings have shown how antibiotic use practices are shaped by pressures in people’s lives and livelihoods: within primary care in South Africa 38 and China; 26 , 39 hospitals in South Africa and/or India; 40–43 and community settings in Bangladesh 44 , 45 and Mozambique. 46 Researchers have also considered the logics of antibiotic use in the livelihoods of poultry farmers in Guatemala 47 and India; 48 Bangladeshi shrimp and prawn farmers; 49 , 50 and dairy farmers in India. 51 …”

“… 38 Elsewhere, researchers revealed how a stewardship intervention targeting Bangladeshi aquaculturalists inadvertently caused their reliance on antibiotics to increase by ignoring risk profiles associated with local economic and ecological conditions, such as flooding. 50 They developed the concept of ‘risk-practices’ to help identify disease reduction opportunities and to avoid the pitfall of a one-size-fits-all response—based on the norms of food production in the Global North—when addressing antibiotic use. 50 …”

“… 50 They developed the concept of ‘risk-practices’ to help identify disease reduction opportunities and to avoid the pitfall of a one-size-fits-all response—based on the norms of food production in the Global North—when addressing antibiotic use. 50 …”

“… 75 When confronted with extreme weather events and disease outbreaks, both Thai orange growers and Bangladeshi shrimp producers are forced to resort to ‘desperate measures’ of antibiotic use to protect their crops and businesses. 50 , 76 An ethnographic study of the intensive, industrialized conditions of an American pig farm highlights the tensions around profit, turnover, human and animal health. 77 In terms of human workers, healthcare practitioners in urban health clinics in South Africa give antibiotics to vulnerable patients partly in light of their precarious living conditions, and to enable them to stay at work or return there quickly.…”

“… 83 Webs of people, farm animals, microbes, living conditions, markets, supply chains and regulations make up ‘modern’ farming and aquaculture, from which antibiotic use emerges. 50 , 76 , 84–86 Understanding these networks assists us to identify alternative means by which to improve animal health and welfare. 87 …”