Global consumption of chicken meat is on the rise. The intensification and industrialisation of chicken rearing has enabled the increased production to keep pace with demand. However, there are growing concerns over the rise of zoonotic infections associated with chicken such as Campylobacter and Bird flu. This thesis explores the spaces of human and chicken (meat) interaction, in order to understand the implications for safe chicken meat supply and consumption.
In order to gain perspectives from the Global North and the Global South, the study is set in the UK, and Zimbabwe. In a departure from the typical node to node supply chain study, this thesis engaged a follow the thing approach and explored various ‘chickenscapes’ - defined as the wider landscape of people, processes and institutions associated with the chicken industry, linking producers and consumers. Based on the collection of interview and observational data in Zimbabwe, and the analysis of archival life story interview data from the UK, the following three themes are identified as informing key practices within chickenscapes, which in turn have implications for food safety. First, the thesis shows how the valuations that people place on a chicken or chicken meat, based on registers of value (such as monetary, sensory, or ethical), have implications for how they interact with it. Secondly, the thesis argues that governance and regulation - explored through standards - dictate where and how people handle chicken and chicken meat, with resulting consequences for food safety and supply. The final empirical chapter identifies approaches to managing disease as key to chicken meat safety and supply. The use of biosecurity, vaccines, antibiotics and alternative ethno-veterinary practices in chicken growing spaces are explored, together with the commercial and domestic chicken processing and raw meat handling practices in light of Campylobacter awareness.
In conclusion, the thesis argues that a core issue in ensuring food safety is the understanding and acknowledgement of multiple forms of knowledge at play in different chickenscapes as it is from these knowledge forms - local, traditional, indigenous, scientific, experiential or rational – that practices are informed and justified
