Framing bovine tuberculosis: a ‘political ecology of health’ approach to circulation of knowledge(s) about animal disease control

Abstract

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) remains a significant animal health problem with a global distribution. In addition to the ecological complexities, socio‐economic and socio‐cultural factors also affect efforts to control and eliminate the disease. Interrogating bTB from the author's positionality of being both a veterinary epidemiologist and a human geographer, this interdisciplinary engagement in the political ecology of health investigates the experiences and opinions of the actors involved in disease control. The findings of this research in one part of the United Kingdom – Northern Ireland – demonstrate gaps between expert scientific discourse and circulating on‐the‐ground perceptions and lay knowledges of the disease. bTB is therefore known and framed in multiple, often antithetical, ways by those who meet and experience the disease on farms. The paper concludes that farmers, vets and state policy‐makers must accept the heterogeneity of the disease; make it visible again; and create new imaginaries for a future where bTB is no longer an everyday ubiquity.

Bovine Tuberculosis in Britain and Ireland – A Perfect Storm? the Confluence of Potential Ecological and Epidemiological Impediments to Controlling a Chronic Infectious Disease

“…Undoubtedly, despite widespread standardisation in the basic diagnostic approach of using injectable tuberculins, there are individual differences in the application of eradication programmes subject to the variations of differing national policies, politics, behaviours and country specific factors ( 6 ). Indeed some of these socio-political factors may be some of the most important factors to account for the difficulties encountered in Britain and Ireland ( 17 ). Even with such heterogeneity of approach across time and national boundaries, it remains startling that particularly in Britain, which came close to achieving eradication in the 1960 and 1970s ( 8, 18 ), bovine TB is resurgent (as discussed above).…”

Being a vet: the veterinary profession in social science research

“…Qu'il s'agisse de l'interprétation des tests de dépistage comme de l'opportunité de les réaliser, de la mise en oeuvre des mesures de gestion (mesures de biosécurité, vaccination, abattage des bovins ou des blaireaux) ou du rapport à la maladie (exterminer, contrôler ou vivre avec), il existe une grande flexibilité des pratiques vétérinaires qui est justement ce qui permet une gestion efficace, « localement universelle », de la maladie (Enticott, 2012b;Enticott & Wilkinson, 2013). Cette attention aux diverses manières d'appréhender les questions de santé, en particulier entre des acteurs dont les savoirs, les outils et les rôles au sein des dispositifs de gestion sont intrinsèquement différents (par exemple les éleveurs, les vétérinaires, et les épidémiologistes) est aussi abordée dans la littérature à travers les notions d'« ontologies » ou d'« écologies politiques » des maladies animales (Law & Mol, 2011 ;Fortané, 2015 ;Robinson, 2017). Celles-ci permettent de souligner que les problèmes sanitaires, comme la tuberculose ou l'antibiorésistance, recouvrent en réalité des formes d'hétérogénéité que les catégories médicales ou politiques mobilisées par les acteurs pour les désigner et les prendre en charge ne parviennent jamais à embrasser totalement et laissent parfois en partie « imperceptibles » (Helliwell et al, 2019).…”

Farmer and veterinarian attitudes towards the risk of zoonotic Mycobacterium bovis infection in Northern Ireland

“…Discussion of bTB as a zoonosis was part of a wider theme around risk framings of the disease from both lay and expert perspectives 15 .…”