Antimicrobial Resistance and Farm Animal Welfare

The overuse of antibiotics in farm animal production is driving antimicrobial resistance, threatening human and animal health, with welfare implications both from the diseases that antibiotics treat and from the resistant infections that may emerge.

Key Facts

Approximately 73% of all antimicrobials sold globally are used in food-producing animals rather than in human medicine
Routine preventive antibiotic use in livestock is banned in the EU and UK but continues in many other major producing countries
Antibiotic-resistant infections kill approximately 700,000 people annually globally, projected to rise to 10 million by 2050
Animals in welfare-compromised conditions require more antibiotic treatment, creating a direct link between poor welfare and antibiotic overuse
Denmark reduced pig farm antibiotic use by 50% between 1994 and 2010 without significant impact on production performance

Welfare Considerations

Antimicrobial resistance creates a welfare feedback loop: poor farm animal welfare conditions cause disease that drives antibiotic use, which drives resistance, which makes future disease harder to treat in both animals and humans. Animals suffering from antibiotic-resistant infections face protracted illness because treatment options are limited. Improving welfare conditions that reduce disease prevalence is therefore both a direct welfare benefit and an antimicrobial stewardship measure. The human health implications of antibiotic resistance provide a powerful policy argument for welfare improvement that complements direct animal welfare arguments.

What You Can Do

Choose meat from farms using antibiotic-free or antibiotic-responsible production methods
Support campaigns for a global ban on routine preventive antibiotic use in farm animal production
Advocate for One Health approaches in national and international policy that link human, animal, and environmental health
Reduce antibiotic-intensive animal product consumption as a contribution to antimicrobial resistance reduction