Regan Áine, Burrell Alison, McKernan Claire, Martin Hannah, Benson Tony, McAloon Conor, Manzanilla Edgar Garcia, Dean Moira
Department of Agri-Food Business & Spatial Analysis, Teagasc Mellows Campus, Athenry, H65 R718, Co. Galway, Ireland.
Animal Health Ireland, 2 - 5 The Archways, Carrick-On-Shannon, N41 WN27, Co.Leitrim, Ireland.
Ir Vet J. 2023 Apr 3;76(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s13620-023-00236-x.
In the coming years, major governance changes in the form of policy directives and regulations will catalyse major top-down change with respect to animal health on European farms in an effort to combat the OneHealth threat of antimicrobial resistance. This top-down approach must be met with bottom-up strategies to ensure target actors (namely, farmers and vets) are supported and motivated to change their practices, thus, avoiding unintended consequences of forced change. Although much behavioural research has explored the factors influencing antimicrobial practices on farms, a gap exists translating these findings into evidence-based behaviour change interventions that can be put into practice. The current study aims to fill this gap. It provides insights into identifying, understanding, and changing the behaviours of farmers and veterinarians with respect to the responsible use of antimicrobials in farming.
Through an inter-disciplinary and multi-actor approach, the study combines scientific knowledge from the behavioural sciences and animal health sciences, coupled with tacit knowledge from a co-design, participatory approach to recommend seven behaviour change interventions that can help to support good practices amongst farmers and vets, with respect to animal health, and reduce the use of antimicrobials on farms. The behaviour change interventions include message framing; OneHealth awareness campaign; specialised communications training; on-farm visual prompts and tools; social support strategies (for both farmers and vets); and antimicrobial use monitoring. The study details each intervention with respect to their evidence base and scientific concept, grounded in behavioural science, along with stakeholder feedback on design and delivery of the interventions.
These behaviour change interventions can be taken, adapted, and put into practice by the agri-food community to support good animal health practices and responsible antimicrobial use on farms.
在未来几年，政策指令和法规等重大治理变革将促使欧洲农场在动物健康方面发生重大的自上而下的变革，以应对抗菌药物耐药性这一“同一个健康”威胁。这种自上而下的方法必须辅之以自下而上的策略，以确保目标行为体（即农民和兽医）得到支持并被激励去改变他们的做法，从而避免强制变革带来的意外后果。尽管许多行为研究已经探讨了影响农场抗菌药物使用做法的因素，但在将这些研究结果转化为可付诸实践的循证行为改变干预措施方面仍存在差距。当前的研究旨在填补这一差距。它为识别、理解和改变农民和兽医在农业中负责任使用抗菌药物方面的行为提供了见解。
通过跨学科和多行为体方法，该研究将行为科学和动物健康科学的科学知识与共同设计、参与式方法的隐性知识相结合，推荐了七种行为改变干预措施，这些措施有助于在动物健康方面支持农民和兽医的良好做法，并减少农场抗菌药物的使用。行为改变干预措施包括信息框架构建；“同一个健康”意识宣传活动；专门的沟通培训；农场视觉提示和工具；社会支持策略（针对农民和兽医）；以及抗菌药物使用监测。该研究详细阐述了每种干预措施的证据基础和基于行为科学的科学概念，以及利益相关者对干预措施设计和实施的反馈。
农业食品社区可以采用、调整并实施这些行为改变干预措施，以支持良好的动物健康做法和农场负责任的抗菌药物使用。
