Scott Claire D A, Bueno Irene, Tasker Alex J, Buller Henry, Reyher Kristen K
The Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Langford, United Kingdom.
Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
Front Vet Sci. 2025 Jul 30;12:1570090. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1570090. eCollection 2025.
Antibiotic use (ABU) practices and attitudes around antibiotic resistance (ABR) are relatively unstudied for smallholders in the UK. Due to differences in outlook, goals and farming methods, these factors may differ from commercial farmers. To gain insight into how the issues of ABU and ABR are communicated amongst and for smallholders, we completed a qualitative content analysis of smallholding print media.
To explore how the concepts of ABR and ABU were portrayed, we gathered 129 articles from four UK smallholding magazines published from January 2015 to December 2019; material relating to ABR (from all issues) and ABU (from quarterly issues) was extracted. Guided by framing theory, we identified key themes and sub-themes. We then used qualitative relational content analysis to consider how and when themes and sub-themes appeared together.
In the theme 'Antibiotic stewardship', contributors encouraged practices such as seeking veterinary supervision for ABU or preventing the need for antibiotics for farm animals. In the theme 'Antibiotics for livestock health', contributors described the importance of antibiotics to protect animal welfare. 'Antibiotic stewardship' occurred alongside 'Antibiotics for livestock health' two-thirds of the time, meaning that reference to antibiotic stewardship was common when discussing ABU. Whilst ABU on smallholdings was characterised as infrequent and broadly restricted to singular animals after observation of clinical signs of disease, analysis of reported instances of ABU showed that recommendations described in the theme 'Antibiotic stewardship' may not consistently be completed in practice, including seeking veterinary supervision for ABU. In the theme 'Problems are elsewhere', contributors ascribed greater significance to groups such as commercial farming or human medicine in their overuse of antibiotics and hence contribution to ABR. Especially where the 'Problems are elsewhere' theme occurred alongside 'Antibiotic stewardship', contributors appeared to demonstrate a lack of acceptance of responsibility for ABR which ranged from subtle to more overt.
Our study provides insight into the ways smallholders consider, discuss and use antibiotics in the context of and in relation to ABR. We identify potential facilitators and barriers to antibiotic stewardship on smallholdings and suggest recommendations for how educational material aimed at smallholders could be adapted to better encourage antibiotic stewardship practices.
在英国，针对小农场主的抗生素使用（ABU）行为以及围绕抗生素耐药性（ABR）的态度相对缺乏研究。由于观念、目标和养殖方式的差异，这些因素可能与商业农场主不同。为了深入了解ABU和ABR问题在小农场主之间以及针对小农场主是如何进行传播的，我们对小农场主印刷媒体进行了定性内容分析。
为了探究ABR和ABU的概念是如何被呈现的，我们从2015年1月至2019年12月在英国出版的四本小农场主杂志中收集了129篇文章；提取了与ABR（来自所有期）和ABU（来自季刊）相关的材料。在框架理论的指导下，我们确定了关键主题和子主题。然后我们使用定性关系内容分析来考虑主题和子主题是如何以及何时同时出现的。
在“抗生素管理”主题中，投稿者鼓励一些做法，比如在使用抗生素时寻求兽医监督，或者避免农场动物需要使用抗生素。在“用于家畜健康的抗生素”主题中，投稿者描述了抗生素对保护动物福利的重要性。“抗生素管理”主题与“用于家畜健康的抗生素”主题有三分之二的时间是同时出现的，这意味着在讨论ABU时提及抗生素管理是很常见的。虽然观察到疾病临床症状后，小农场的ABU被描述为不常见且大致仅限于个别动物，但对报告的ABU实例分析表明，“抗生素管理”主题中描述的建议在实践中可能无法始终得到落实，包括在使用抗生素时寻求兽医监督。在“问题在其他地方”主题中，投稿者认为商业养殖或人类医学等群体在过度使用抗生素以及因此对ABR的促成方面具有更大的重要性。特别是当“问题在其他地方”主题与“抗生素管理”主题同时出现时，投稿者似乎表现出对ABR责任的接受度不足，程度从微妙到明显不等。
我们的研究深入了解了小农场主在ABR背景下以及与之相关的情况下如何考虑、讨论和使用抗生素。我们确定了小农场抗生素管理的潜在促进因素和障碍，并就如何调整针对小农场主的教育材料以更好地鼓励抗生素管理实践提出了建议。
