Production Without Medicalisation Summary

Production Without Medicalisation is an ESRC-funded multidisciplinary collaboration examining the social drivers for antimicrobial use in Bangladesh’s shrimp and prawn aquaculture industry. Principle investigator Steve Hinchliffe (professor in human geography) and anthropologist Andrea Butcher work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team of academics, industry experts, and local NGO expertise in Bangladesh and across the UK to generate knowledge about the uses of and socio-economic drivers for antibiotic use in aquaculture in South Asia, a major regional export industry as well as a source of livelihood and food security. Amongst other project deliverables, the team will work with local farmers to monitor pond health and develop sustainable disease management strategies that can be disseminated using a farm-based tool. The research contributes to initiatives underway to minimise antimicrobial resistance and its potential threat to human, non-human animal, and environmental health, one of the global challenges of our times.