Who owns Salmonella?: The politics of infections shared by humans and livestock in the Netherlands, 1959-1965

Abstract

In the period 1959-1965 the Netherlands witnessed a major controversy between agricultural and public health camps on livestock-associated Salmonella, and whether the state or the agricultural sector itself was responsible for its control. The case is used to argue for historiographical analysis of negotiations between the policy domains of public health and agriculture, rather than study these domains separately. Using Joseph Gusfield's concept of 'ownership' of public problems, the paper shows why attempts by public health experts to define salmonellosis as a public problem and control policy responses largely failed against the agricultural 'green front' of Dutch statutory industrial organisations (publiekrechtelijke bedrijfsorganisaties, pbos), the Ministry of Agriculture and members of parliament. The paper also argues for historiographical attention to be given to the influence of pbos on policy making in the second half of the twentieth century.