The use of antibiotics in livestock production has profound implications for animal welfare through disease treatment and prevention, while contributing to antimicrobial resistance that threatens human and animal health globally.
Antibiotics serve a critical welfare function — treating bacterial infections in animals that would otherwise suffer and die. Restricting antibiotic access without addressing the underlying disease pressures of intensive production would cause immense suffering. The welfare challenge is that intensive systems rely on antibiotics as a substitute for the welfare improvements that would naturally reduce disease: more space, lower stress, better nutrition, and improved housing. The antimicrobial resistance crisis threatens future treatment capacity for both humans and animals — a world with fewer effective antibiotics is a world with more animal suffering from untreatable infections. Reducing antibiotic use through genuine welfare improvement, rather than simply withholding treatment from sick animals, is the only ethically acceptable path.