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Introduction: Livestock farmers are being increasingly encouraged to adopt digital health technologies on their farms. Digital innovations may have unintended consequences, but there tends to be a pro-innovation bias in previous literature. This has led to a movement towards "responsible innovation," an approach that questions the social and ethical challenges of research and innovation. This paper explores the social and ethical issues of data and technologies on Swedish dairy and pig farms from a critical perspective. Methods: Six focus groups were conducted with thirteen dairy and thirteen pig farmers. The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and a digital critical health lens, which focuses on concepts of identity and power. Results and discussion: The analysis generated four themes: extending the self, sense of agency, quantifying animals, and managing human labour. The findings suggest that technologies can change and form the identities of farmers, their workers, and animals by increasing the visibility of behaviours and bodies through data collection. Technologies can also facilitate techniques of power such as conforming to norms, hierarchical surveillance, and segregation of populations based on data. There were many contradictions in the way that technology was used on farms which suggests that farmers cannot be dichotomised into those who are opposed to and those that support adoption of technologies. Emotions and morality played an important role in the way animals were managed and technologies were used by farmers. Thus, when developing innovations, we need to consider users' feelings and attachments towards the technologies. Technologies have different impacts on farmers and farm workers which suggests that we need to ensure that we understand the perspectives of multiple user groups when developing innovations, including those that might be least empowered.
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BACKGROUND: Acute puerperal metritis affects cows during the early postpartum period and causes fever, fetid vaginal discharge and general depression. The disease is severe and treatment with antimicrobials is often required. This study followed 79 Swedish dairy cows with acute puerperal metritis with registered treatment and outcome in terms of recovery. Bacteria isolated from the uterus and their susceptibility to penicillin were studied. Clinical cases were assigned by participating practitioners who examined the cows, performed uterine swab sampling, decided treatment and provided information about cow health and calving conditions. Fertility and culling data were collected from the official Swedish milk and health recording scheme. Recovery from disease was defined in four levels; as a cow that survived 1 or 4 months, was inseminated and subsequently became pregnant. Intervals from dates of first and latest calving to insemination date were studied. RESULTS: The most common bacterial findings were a mixed culture of Escherichia coli and bacteria such as Gram positive cocci, Fusobacterium necrophorum, Clostridium spp. or Trueperella pyogenes. The Gram positive cocci, Pasteurella spp. and F. necrophorum were generally susceptible to penicillin. The majority of cows (70%) were treated with penicillin in accordance with the Swedish policy on treatment of metritis while 19% were treated with tetracycline and 8% were not treated with antimicrobials. Recovery rates were similar between treatments. Besides "calving to last insemination" interval (CLI) that was 5 days shorter than the national mean, fertility was slightly reduced compared to national means. "Calving to first insemination" interval (CFI) was 4 days longer than national mean and number of inseminations/cow increased from 1.9 to 2.1. Escherichia coli culture positive cows did not become pregnant to the same extent as cows without E. coli in the uterus (P = 0.046). Twin births resulted in a longer CFI (P = 0.034). The culling rate was generally high (42% within 300 days after occurrence of metritis), though death associated with acute disease was low (6%). CONCLUSIONS: Escherichia coli was the most common bacterial pathogen isolated from cases of acute puerperal metritis in the present study. This bacterium is inherently resistant to penicillin, but although most cows were treated with penicillin, death due to acute disease was low and recovery and final fertility results were acceptable. In times of emerging antimicrobial resistance and demand for prudent antimicrobial use, we suggest that penicillin is a "good enough" choice if antimicrobial treatment of acute puerperal metritis is needed.
