Antibiotic use in livestock farming has both animal welfare implications and public health consequences through antimicrobial resistance. Responsible stewardship serves both goals.
Antibiotic stewardship in livestock farming connects individual animal welfare with broader public health. The welfare dimension is often overlooked in the resistance debate: high antibiotic use in farming often reflects poor welfare conditions — crowding, stress, and inadequate biosecurity — that create disease susceptibility requiring pharmaceutical management. Reducing antibiotics without improving underlying welfare conditions simply transfers suffering from infectious disease to unmanaged welfare deficits. True stewardship requires simultaneously reducing antibiotic dependence and improving the welfare conditions that drive it. When welfare conditions are good — adequate space, low stress, good biosecurity — antibiotic requirements naturally decrease. The welfare and stewardship goals are therefore aligned: better animal welfare means less antibiotic dependence.