Responsible antibiotic use in livestock protects both animal welfare and public health, requiring careful stewardship to balance treatment needs against antimicrobial resistance risks.
The antibiotic stewardship debate intersects directly with animal welfare: reducing antibiotic use is only compatible with good welfare if disease prevention is improved simultaneously. Reducing antibiotics without improving welfare — better housing, lower stocking density, improved biosecurity — simply means more animals suffer untreated infections. The most welfare-positive approach to stewardship is the prevention-first model: investing in higher welfare standards that reduce disease incidence, thereby reducing antibiotic need without imposing untreated suffering. Higher-welfare production systems generally use fewer antibiotics because disease prevalence is lower, demonstrating that welfare improvement and stewardship are complementary, not conflicting goals.