CRG Seminar: Chickens to the rescue? Poultry production and antimicrobial resistance in Zanzibar

In Zanzibar as across other African settings, rapidly rising production of chickens is framed as a solution to challenges such as food and protein insecurity, rapid population growth and urbanization, or income generating opportunities. However, the industrial production models underlying this expansion relies on antimicrobial medicines such as antibiotics, to suppress and treat infections and to lower production costs and increase profitability. Largely similar to antimicrobials used for treating humans, this model of producing chickens (and other animals for that matter) contributes to spreading antimicrobial drug resistance (AMR)s, especially when regulation and enforcement are weak.

 

In this talk, Gerrets presents some preliminary findings from ethnographic research of the chicken sector in Zanzibar, zooming in on colistin. Recategorized as a ‘reserve antibiotic’ by the World Health Organization - with the aim of prolonging its therapeutic usefulness for humans – colistin used in Zanzibar is mainly imported from Dutch companies. However, the Netherlands – and the EU at large – strictly limits the veterinary usage of this antibiotic, as does China, where most producers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) are based. Through this case, this paper aims to raise questions about the international trade in and governance of antibiotics, longer-terms effects of ‘not-in-my-backyard’ (nimby) type decision-making, also for the industrial models of chicken production that are central to goals to improve nutrition and protein deficiencies.