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Study: Chicken Farming and Drug Resistance in Ecuadoran Kids
USAgNet - 03/19/2018

Hayden Hedman and two members of his field research team make their way up a small hill into the community of Borbón in northern Ecuador. Palm trees and lush greenery contrast with the dry dirt road that leads to the researchers' destination.

For the last three years, Hedman and his team of 10 field researchers have been studying the production chicken farming practices in this remote area of Ecuador to evaluate the behavior and movement of drug-resistant bacteria.

Like many communities throughout Ecuador, Borbón--one of the largest towns in the region--has grown increasingly dependent on chicken as a way of obtaining food security. Chicken production has quadrupled in the country since 1990.

In Borbón, brown, gray and speckled backyard chickens, known here as criollos, roam about the land, digging into the dirt for worms, eating food scraps, foraging in the jungle. In a chicken coop nearby, white 'broiler' chickens are tenderly cared for, fed promptly and given medicine when they look like they're suffering from 'ahogo,' or lack of air, something common for the birds that have a hard time adjusting to the tropical climate.

Hedman's research is part of EcoDess, a larger, longitudinal study led by Joseph Eisenberg, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, that seeks to understand how new highways have affected the epidemiology of pathogens causing diarrheal diseases and the spread of antibiotic resistance. The work focuses on the area of Cantón Eloy Alfaro at the confluence of three river basins: Río Capays, Río Santiago and Río Onzole.

The project, initially financed by the NIH, started in 2000 and over the years, researchers have developed protocols to gauge the impact of environmental and social changes in the area, Eisenberg says.

"The road opened the way for micro industries focused on economic development," he said. "For families or communities to sell chickens was a very important development. But these chickens are being fed a lot of antibiotics as growth promoters. And so the question was: How does the use of antibiotics in animals impact antibiotic resistance in the community?"

Hedman describes himself as a public health unicorn. Chickens and antibiotic resistance were not top of mind as he embarked on his studies.

The U-M doctoral candidate graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado with a major in ecology and evolutionary biology. His honors thesis focused on the effects of invasive fish on the wetlands. In Costa Rica, he studied aggression in amphibians. In Peru, he surveyed the reptile and amphibian population explosion at an ecotourism resort.

And at U-M, Hedman helped with the preservation, care and management of the university's avian, herpetology and reptile collections as he pursued his doctorate in the School of Environment and Sustainability.

But all along, he said, something was missing: he yearned to work directly with people and was anxious to see the direct impact from his research. He found out about EcoDess and the drug-resistance research subproject, and thought this would be the perfect match.

"I found this intersection of not only looking at infectious diseases but how they can go from animals to humans, especially poultry because most of the world is dependent on that," Hedman said. "I had the skills, I knew how to work in the field, my Spanish was OK. So it was more about applying those skills to questions that were more meaningful to me."

How did the chicken (bacteria) cross the (drug-resistance) road?

Hedman and colleagues began their research by conducting qualitative interviews with families, veterinarians, vendors, customers and residents to better understand their perspectives on poultry farming.


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