Responsible antibiotic use in cattle benefits both animal welfare and global public health by preventing antibiotic resistance. Good stewardship requires treating sick animals while reducing prophylactic and growth-promoting use.
Antibiotic stewardship and animal welfare are not competing objectives but complementary ones. Sick animals that need antibiotics should receive them promptly, as withholding treatment causes unnecessary suffering and is a welfare failure. The stewardship challenge is eliminating preventive mass medication that treats animals who are not sick, and growth promoter use that adds antibiotics solely to improve feed conversion. Both practices can be replaced by better management: improved biosecurity, targeted vaccination, adequate nutrition, and reduced stocking densities. Farms with good welfare outcomes generally use fewer antibiotics because healthy animals in good conditions get sick less often. Welfare and stewardship goals align when the root causes of disease are addressed rather than symptoms being suppressed.