A participatory approach for building ex ante impact pathways towards a prudent use of antimicrobials in pig and poultry sectors in France

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health threat responsible for 700,000 deaths per year worldwide. There is scientific evidence of the causal relationship between antimicrobial use (AMU) along the food chain and AMR. Improving AMU in livestock is therefore a key component in the fight against AMR. To improve AMU in livestock, there is no one-size-fits-all solution and strategies must be context-adapted and socially acceptable for actors in order to increase AMU sustainability. AMU decision-making is based on an interdependent set of economic, behavioral, ethical, and cultural factors that need to be assessed to advise on the potential impacts of measures. We hypothesized that a participatory strategic planning approach may increase the plausibility and the efficacy of the strategies formulated by facilitating the dialogue between actors of diverse backgrounds, stimulating innovative thinking and constant considerations of contextual factors, actors and impacts. We adapted and applied the ImpresS ex ante approach (IMPact in reSearch in the South, https://impress-impact-recherche.cirad.fr/) within a Living Lab engaging actors from the French pig and poultry sectors in co-creation of innovative strategies towards improved AMU. We conducted semi-structured interviews and participatory workshops between April 2021 and March 2022. The results describe 1) an initial diagnosis of the current AMU situation in the pig and poultry sectors in France; 2) a common vision of the future to which participants would like to contribute through the intervention; 3) an identification of the current problems opposed to this vision of the future; 4) a defined scope of the intervention; 5) a typology of actors protagonist or impacted by those issues and 6) outcome maps to solve a priority problem related to indicators and monitoring. This study provides recommendations for decision-makers on plausible and innovative strategies to sustainably improve AMU in pig and poultry sectors in France and evidence of the benefits of participatory strategic planning approaches.