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Paper short abstract:

In light of the global rise in antibiotic resistance, this paper examines the impact of antibiotics on livestock farming practices in Tanzania. It analyzes the discrepancy between the farmers’ extensive knowledge and their practical experience in relation to existing social and economic conditions.

Paper long abstract:

The use of antibiotics has had a significant impact on human medicine and food production. This success, however, is increasingly being undermined by the global rise of antibiotic resistance. Regulatory failures in the past have materialized as biological processes since the “history of antibiotics is not behind us, it is in us” (Landecker 2016: 44). In the field of global health, this embodied ill-health is often attributed to poorly informed choices, particularly by people in the so-called Global South. As such approaches neglect structural forces that prevent appropriate use, an analysis of related socio-material conditions becomes necessary.

This paper is based on an ongoing qualitative study of human-animal interactions in the context of current livestock farming in Tanga, Tanzania. The study is part of an interdisciplinary project that combines both anthropological and microbiological approaches to the research of antibiotic resistance. This paper examines how the adoption of antibiotics has changed farmers’ practices in navigating animal health. It aims to explore the diverse knowledge that the farmers hold about animals, antibiotics and resistance, and to analyze in how far they can translate this knowledge into practice. What knowledge is being suppressed due to structural conditions? What different drivers of antibiotic resistance do they identify? Building on farmers’ knowledge, it will also be investigated how alternative practices can be promoted to reduce antibiotic use. Such strategies, generated from and for the local context, could contribute to counteract North-South power dynamics.