Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry

Since 1997 the world has been facing the threat of a human influenza pandemic that may be caused by an avian virus and the poultry industry around the globe has been grappling with the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1, or in more informal terms bird flu. The UK poultry industry has l...

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Main Authors: Nerlich, Brigitte, Brown, Brian, Crawford, Paul
Format: Article
Published: Routledge 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1304/
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author Nerlich, Brigitte
Brown, Brian
Crawford, Paul
author_facet Nerlich, Brigitte
Brown, Brian
Crawford, Paul
author_sort Nerlich, Brigitte
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Since 1997 the world has been facing the threat of a human influenza pandemic that may be caused by an avian virus and the poultry industry around the globe has been grappling with the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1, or in more informal terms bird flu. The UK poultry industry has lived with and through this threat and its consequences since 2005. This study investigates knowledge claims about health, hygiene and biosecurity as tools to ward off the threat from this virus. It takes a semi-ethnographic and discourse analytic approach to analyse a small corpus of semi-structured interviews carried out in the wake of one of the most publicised outbreaks of H5N1 in Suffolk in 2007. It reveals that claims about what best to do to protect flocks against the risk of disease are divided along lines imposed on the one hand by the structure of the industry and on the other by more 'tribal' lines drawn by knowledge and belief systems about purity and dirt, health and hygiene.
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spelling nottingham-13042020-05-04T20:26:06Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1304/ Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry Nerlich, Brigitte Brown, Brian Crawford, Paul Since 1997 the world has been facing the threat of a human influenza pandemic that may be caused by an avian virus and the poultry industry around the globe has been grappling with the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1, or in more informal terms bird flu. The UK poultry industry has lived with and through this threat and its consequences since 2005. This study investigates knowledge claims about health, hygiene and biosecurity as tools to ward off the threat from this virus. It takes a semi-ethnographic and discourse analytic approach to analyse a small corpus of semi-structured interviews carried out in the wake of one of the most publicised outbreaks of H5N1 in Suffolk in 2007. It reveals that claims about what best to do to protect flocks against the risk of disease are divided along lines imposed on the one hand by the structure of the industry and on the other by more 'tribal' lines drawn by knowledge and belief systems about purity and dirt, health and hygiene. Routledge 2009-12 Article PeerReviewed Nerlich, Brigitte, Brown, Brian and Crawford, Paul (2009) Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry. Health, Risk & Society, 11 (6). pp. 561-577. ISSN 1369-8575 risk; hygiene; biosecurity; poultry industry http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13698570903329441 doi:10.1080/13698570903329441 doi:10.1080/13698570903329441
spellingShingle risk; hygiene; biosecurity; poultry industry
Nerlich, Brigitte
Brown, Brian
Crawford, Paul
Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry
title Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry
title_full Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry
title_fullStr Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry
title_full_unstemmed Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry
title_short Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry
title_sort health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the uk poultry industry
topic risk; hygiene; biosecurity; poultry industry
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1304/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1304/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1304/