Animal geographies of industrial animal agriculture in the Pandemic Era: the tragedy and insecurity of multispecies ethnography |
People, Pigs, and Microbes: Antimicrobial Resistance across Biotic Socialities |
Amidst the capitalist logics governing life and death in the industrial production of pigs and poultry in Denmark, we confront the ethico-methodological challenges of conducting multispecies research in this time of increased pathogen emergence and transmission: the ‘Pandemic Era’. Drawing on our empirical insights, we contend that worldly animal geographies in the Pandemic Era are constituted by biological and existential insecurity, underscoring the importance of this work. Through affectively attuning to the bordering devices of biosecurity, we convey the capaciousness of performative understandings of species that industrial agriculture constrains but which animal geographers can advance. Acts of witnessing in industrial agriculture expose the limitations of multispecies ethnography that simultaneously catalyse advancement in the field. Whilst our work reckons with the tragedy of multispecies ethnography in industrial landscapes, the limits we have encountered, from the methodological to the ethical, are incitements to critique and innovate modes of attunement that extend beyond the field of animal geographies itself.
Mc Loughlin, E., Rutt, R. L., Nielsen, N. D., & Skriver Møller, A. (2024). Animal geographies of industrial animal agriculture in the Pandemic Era: the tragedy and insecurity of multispecies ethnography. Scottish Geographical Journal, 1-18. Lowering antibiotic usage and phasing out pharmaceutical zinc oxide in Danish pig herds:Pig farmers’ and veterinarians’ experiences and perceptions
The usage of antibiotics in pig production is much debated due to the risk for antimicrobial resistance where routine usage is necessary to protect animal welfare. Denmark has a relatively low usage of antibiotics in pigs. Thus, the Danish context provides critical insight on how to achieve a lower usage of antibiotics in pigs, and experiences from Danish farmers and veterinarians are useful when debating possibilities for reduction. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with ten pig farmers and six pig veterinarians in Denmark to examine how they perceived animal welfare to be affected in herds where the usage of antibiotics or pZnO had been reduced. Kongsted, H., & Mc Loughlin, E. (2023). Lowering antibiotic usage and phasing out pharmaceutical zinc oxide in Danish pig herds: Pig farmers’ and veterinarians’ experiences and perceptions. Livestock Science, 273, 105260. |
The 'Humans, Animals and Microbes' project studies the extent to which we share bacteria when we are in the same social contexts, and to what extent this is also true across species such as humans, dogs and pigs. At the same time, we also know that antibiotic resistance is increasingly becoming a health problem and that resistance can arise in many different places. We want to investigate whether resistant bacteria can spread in a local area without making people sick.
Antibiotic resistance can mean that common antibiotics no longer work against infections caused by bacteria, because the bacteria can become resistant to the medicine. Antibiotic resistance is becoming increasingly common and can therefore threaten our health. Antibiotic resistance can occur wherever we use antibiotics, whether in medical treatment of humans or animals. This project can help to find out whether we can do more - or do something different - to prevent antibiotic resistance, or whether what we are already doing is enough. Learn more about the project here |