Antibiotic use in livestock farming has welfare implications both for the animals treated and for public health through antimicrobial resistance. Stewardship programs balance effective treatment with responsible use.
Livestock antibiotic stewardship involves genuine welfare tensions that must be navigated carefully. Antibiotics are essential medicines for treating bacterial infections that cause pain and death in farm animals. Restricting antibiotic access without simultaneously improving the housing, management, and health conditions that drive disease need creates welfare harm through under-treated illness. However, inappropriate antibiotic use — particularly prophylactic use in healthy animals to compensate for poor conditions — does not improve welfare and contributes to resistance that threatens both human and animal medicine. The welfare-positive path to antibiotic reduction runs through prevention: better housing, lower stocking density, vaccination programs, improved biosecurity, and robust herd health monitoring. The Danish model demonstrates that antibiotic reduction and welfare improvement are not in conflict when implemented holistically. Responsible veterinary prescribing and farmer education are essential components of welfare-positive stewardship.