Abstract
Background: There is increasing concern around the use of antibiotics in animal food production and the risk of transmission of antimicrobial resistance within the food chain. In many low and middle-income countries, including Bangladesh, the commercial poultry sector comprises small-scale producers who are dependent on credit from poultry dealers to buy day-old chicks and poultry feed. The same dealers also supply and promote antibiotics. The credit system is reliant upon informal relationships among multiple actors as part of social capital. This paper aims to describe dependencies and relationships between different actors within unregulated broiler poultry production systems to understand the social and contextual determinants of antibiotic use in low-resource settings.Methods: We used a cross-sectional qualitative design including in-depth interviews among purposefully selected commercial poultry farmers (n = 10), poultry dealers (n = 5), sales representatives of livestock pharmaceutical companies (n = 3) and the local government livestock officer as a key-informant (n = 1). We describe the food production cycle and practices relating to credit purchases and sales using social capital theory.Findings: Poultry dealers provide credit and information for small-scale poultry farmers to initiate and operate their business. In return for credit, farmers are obliged to buy poultry feed and medicine from their dealer and sell their market-ready poultry to that same dealer. All farms applied multiple antibiotics to poultry throughout the production cycle, including banned antibiotics such as colistin sulfate. The relationship between dealers and poultry farmers is reciprocal but mostly regulated by the dealers. Dealers were the main influencers of decision-making by farmers, particularly around antibiotic use as an integral part of the production cycle risk management. Our findings suggest that strategies to improve antibiotic stewardship and responsible use should exploit the patron-client relationship which provides the social and information network for small-scale farmers.Conclusion: Social capital theory can be applied to the patron-client relationship observed among poultry farmers and dealers in Bangladesh to identify influences on decision making and antibiotic use. Within unregulated food production systems, strategies to promote the prudent use of antibiotics should target commercial feed producers and livestock pharmaceutical manufacturers as a first step in developing a sustainable poultry value chain.
Highlights
Demand for animal sourced protein for human consumption has increased from 7 to 25 g per capita per day between 1960 and 2013 [1] due to increased access to information on meeting nutritional requirements and higher purchasing ability in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) [2].In Bangladesh, ∼37% of all animal protein meat consumption originates from poultry [3]
Small-scale commercial poultry farmers cannot afford to buy day-old chicks and poultry feed directly from the hatcheries or feed manufacturing companies and depend on dealers or agents who provide a credit system [8]
As part of a study to determine drivers of antibiotic use in poultry production, this paper aims to describe the nature of dependencies and reciprocal relationships between different actors in small-scale broiler poultry production and how the dependent relationships influence farmers’ decisions to use antibiotics to raise broilers
Summary
Demand for animal sourced protein for human consumption has increased from 7 to 25 g per capita per day between 1960 and 2013 [1] due to increased access to information on meeting nutritional requirements and higher purchasing ability in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) [2].In Bangladesh, ∼37% of all animal protein meat consumption originates from poultry [3]. Small-scale broiler farms are typically traditional open system broiler houses with natural ventilation, manual feeding and open-sided walls They are usually built on the land surrounding the homestead with locally available low-cost materials and often rely on family labor [6]. Small-scale commercial poultry farmers cannot afford to buy day-old chicks and poultry feed directly from the hatcheries or feed manufacturing companies and depend on dealers or agents who provide a credit system [8]. This credit system in turn provides social networks and relationships, described in social capital theory, through which information can flow. This paper aims to describe dependencies and relationships between different actors within unregulated broiler poultry production systems to understand the social and contextual determinants of antibiotic use in low-resource settings
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