Antibiotic Resistance and Livestock Welfare: A Linked Crisis

Routine antibiotic use in intensive livestock farming drives antimicrobial resistance while masking welfare problems. Reducing agricultural antibiotic use requires improving the welfare conditions that necessitate it.

Key Facts

Approximately 73% of all antimicrobials sold globally are used in food-producing animals
Prophylactic mass medication — treating entire herds without disease diagnosis — is standard in many countries
Antibiotic-resistant infections kill an estimated 700,000 people annually — projected to reach 10 million by 2050
The EU banned routine prophylactic antibiotic use in livestock from January 2022
Denmark reduced veterinary antibiotic use by 50% over 20 years while maintaining productivity through welfare improvements
Post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets accounts for a large proportion of prophylactic antibiotic use
Higher-welfare farms with better hygiene, nutrition and management consistently use fewer antibiotics

Welfare Considerations

The link between antibiotic use and animal welfare is bidirectional and important: poor welfare conditions create disease pressure that necessitates antibiotic use, and antibiotic use masks welfare problems that would otherwise incentivise improvement. Farms with high-quality housing, appropriate stocking density, good nutrition and careful stockmanship consistently achieve lower disease rates and antibiotic requirements. The Denmark example is instructive — a systematic reduction in antibiotic use, when accompanied by welfare improvements, maintained animal health without productivity loss. Reducing antibiotic use in livestock is therefore not just a public health imperative but a welfare improvement pathway, as it forces identification and correction of the underlying husbandry problems driving disease.

What You Can Do

Choose meat products from farms with independently audited low antibiotic use
Support the UK's responsible use of medicines in agriculture (RUMA) initiative and equivalent bodies globally
Advocate for mandatory antibiotic use reporting and targets in livestock licensing regulations
Reduce meat consumption from intensive systems where prophylactic antibiotic use is standard practice