Responsible antibiotic use in livestock protects the future availability of effective treatments for both animals and humans, with direct implications for long-term animal welfare.
The link between antibiotic stewardship and animal welfare operates in both directions. In the short term, appropriate antibiotic use is a welfare intervention that relieves suffering from bacterial infection. In the long term, antibiotic resistance threatens the availability of effective treatments, which would dramatically worsen future welfare outcomes for both animals and humans. Systems that reduce antibiotic dependency through improved welfare conditions — better housing, lower stocking density, reduced stress, effective vaccination — protect both animal welfare and antibiotic efficacy simultaneously. Farms and sectors achieving low antibiotic use in high-welfare systems demonstrate that the two objectives are complementary rather than in tension. Stewardship programmes that measure both antibiotic use and welfare outcomes, using one to contextualise the other, provide the most complete picture of responsible livestock management.