Antibiotic Use in Livestock Welfare Implications

How antibiotic stewardship in livestock both addresses animal welfare and protects human health.

Key Facts

Over 70% of medically important antibiotics globally are used in livestock production
Routine preventive antibiotic use in livestock masks poor welfare conditions rather than addressing root causes
Antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis with 1.27 million deaths directly attributed to resistant bacteria in 2019
Reducing antibiotic use requires improving the welfare conditions that make disease pressure high
Countries that have reduced livestock antibiotic use show that production can be maintained with better management
Disease surveillance, vaccination programs, and improved husbandry are the welfare-positive alternatives

Welfare Considerations

Antibiotic stewardship in livestock is a welfare issue as well as a public health issue. The welfare dimension is often overlooked: routine antibiotic use masks the welfare problems of overcrowding, poor hygiene, and stress that make animals susceptible to disease in the first place. Reducing antibiotic use without addressing these underlying conditions simply allows disease to manifest more visibly, which is worse for both welfare and production. The welfare-positive path to antibiotic reduction involves genuine improvement of the conditions that cause disease rather than simply removing pharmaceutical management of those conditions.

What You Can Do

Choose meat products from farms with documented low antibiotic use and high welfare standards
Support regulatory requirements for veterinary prescription of all livestock antibiotics
Advocate for prohibition of routine preventive antibiotic use in healthy animal populations
Support the development and uptake of vaccination programs that reduce disease pressure in livestock