Reducing antibiotic use in livestock is a public health priority, but welfare must be protected during the transition. Good welfare and appropriate antibiotic stewardship are complementary rather than conflicting goals.
Antibiotic stewardship and animal welfare are fundamentally complementary goals when approached correctly. Animals in poor welfare conditions experience higher disease rates requiring more antibiotic treatment; improving welfare reduces antibiotic need at source. The welfare risk emerges when antibiotic use is reduced without parallel investment in the management, housing, and vaccination improvements that prevent disease. Regulatory frameworks that require antibiotic reduction must therefore be accompanied by welfare monitoring to detect any increase in disease burden or untreated illness that might result from premature withdrawal without adequate management change.