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Decentring antibiotics: UK responses to the diseases of intensive pig production (ca. 1925-65)

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  • Abigail Woods

    (King’s College London)

Abstract

It is widely assumed that the development of antibiotics had a transformative effect on livestock production by making it possible to keep larger numbers of animals in smaller spaces without them succumbing to disease. Using the health and production of UK pigs, ca. 1925-65, as a case study, this article argues that their impact has been overstated. It draws on evidence from veterinary journals, farming magazines, and government-appointed committees to demonstrate the significance of other methods of countering the diseases that emerged in association with intensive production systems. Devised by vets, farmers and other experts, these methods predated antibiotics and evolved alongside them. They were rooted in a shared understanding of pig diseases as highly complex phenomena that resulted from interactions between pig bodies and their environments. Recognition of the roles played by housing, husbandry, nutrition, and pathogens in the production of pig disease suggested multiple possible points of intervention. In situating antibiotics within this landscape of disease prevention and control, this article challenges existing claims about their reception and impact, decentres them from the history of intensive farming, and draws attention to other methods of promoting pig health, which may find renewed applications as we move towards a post-antibiotic era.

Suggested Citation

  • Abigail Woods, 2019. "Decentring antibiotics: UK responses to the diseases of intensive pig production (ca. 1925-65)," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:5:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-019-0246-5
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-019-0246-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Higgins, David M. & Mordhorst, Mads, 2015. "Bringing Home the “Danish†Bacon: Food Chains, National Branding and Danish Supremacy over the British Bacon Market, c. 1900–1938," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 141-185, March.
    2. Office of Health Economics, 1969. "Antibiotics in Animal Husbandry," Series on Health 000158, Office of Health Economics.
    3. Juckes, David, 1967. "Scale of Enterprise and Structural Change in British Pig Farming," Department of Agricultural Economics Archive 260450, University of Exeter.
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    Cited by:

    1. Camille Bellet & Lindsay Hamilton & Jonathan Rushton, 2021. "Re-thinking public health: Towards a new scientific logic of routine animal health care in European industrial farming," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Comer, Clémentine & Benoit, Lucile & Hellec, Florence & Fortané, Nicolas, 2023. "Demedication without demedicalization? Redefining the medical and economic boundaries of veterinary professional jurisdiction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).

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