Overuse of antibiotics in livestock farming drives antimicrobial resistance (AMR), threatening both animal and human health. Reducing unnecessary antibiotic use improves animal welfare while protecting a global public health resource.
The relationship between antibiotic use and animal welfare is nuanced. Antibiotics are necessary treatments for genuinely ill animals, and withholding them causes suffering. However, prophylactic use of antibiotics to compensate for poor welfare conditions perpetuates the welfare problems rather than solving them. Reducing antibiotic use in animal agriculture therefore requires improving the underlying welfare conditions that create disease risk — better housing, lower stocking densities, reduced stress, and improved nutrition. Countries that have successfully reduced veterinary antibiotic use have done so through welfare improvements, not by denying sick animals treatment. This makes AMR reduction and farm animal welfare genuinely complementary objectives.