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Short abstract:

The current development of preventive approaches to animal health is related to a profound transformation of veterinary expertise, which is observable both through the emergence of new medical practices and of new business models that can economically support these practices.

Long abstract:

Over the past 10 years, veterinarians have drastically reduced their prescription of antibiotics in order to contribute to the fight against antimicrobial resistance. This objective has mainly been achieved thanks to new forms of regulation of the veterinary drug market: monitoring of prescriptions, obligation to perform sensitivity tests, dissemination of prescription guidelines and, last but not least, control of antibiotics prices and interdiction of back margins in antibiotic sales. These transformations have fostered the development of new professional and economic models in veterinary medicine, namely preventive approaches which are currently extending veterinary expertise towards new areas (nutrition, hygiene, biosecurity) and allow in the same time practitioners to diversify their source of incomes.

This paper is based on 32 interviews and about 20h of ethnographic observations of veterinarians working in the pig and poultry industry, in Western France. It describes these two sides of preventive approaches to animal health that have contributed to the decrease of antimicrobial use in livestock. First, how veterinarians’ practices are evolving from a medical perspective: news tools, forms of knowledge and professional roles emerge in veterinary activity that could be described as a process of protocolization of care. Second, how veterinary activity is also transformed from an economic and organizational perspective: new business models and forms of veterinary companies support the development of these preventive services. In total, we observe a profound transformation of the veterinary profession that starts to be dominated by large corporate groups driving this medical and economic shift of veterinary expertise.