Overuse of antibiotics in livestock farming drives antimicrobial resistance that threatens both human and animal health, while prophylactic use masks poor welfare conditions that should be addressed directly.
The relationship between antibiotic use and animal welfare is complex. High welfare systems with lower stocking densities, better nutrition, and effective enrichment have consistently lower disease rates and lower antibiotic use — demonstrating that welfare improvement and antibiotic stewardship reinforce each other. Prophylactic antibiotics have historically permitted intensive farming systems to maintain disease at tolerable levels despite conditions that inherently compromise immune function. Restrictions on prophylactic use create pressure to improve the underlying welfare conditions that drive disease. For individual animals, antibiotic treatment when genuinely ill is an important welfare tool — the problem is preventive group treatment that masks systemic welfare failures.