Antibiotic Stewardship and Farm Animal Welfare

How reducing antibiotic use through welfare improvements benefits both animals and human health outcomes.

Key Facts

Global livestock antibiotic use represents approximately 73% of all antibiotics consumed worldwide.
Prophylactic and growth-promoting antibiotic use is banned in the EU but continues in many other regions.
Disease pressure requiring antibiotic treatment is directly driven by welfare-compromising conditions.
Farms that improve welfare reduce antibiotic use dramatically without productivity losses.
Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health crisis directly linked to agricultural antibiotic use.
Denmark reduced pig antibiotic use by 50% over two decades through welfare improvements and veterinary reforms.

Welfare Considerations

The link between animal welfare and antimicrobial resistance represents one of the most compelling cases for welfare improvement from a public health perspective. High disease rates requiring antibiotic treatment in livestock are not inevitable but reflect the consequence of welfare-compromising conditions including crowding, poor ventilation, inadequate nutrition, and high stress levels that suppress immune function. Addressing root causes through welfare improvement reduces disease burden while simultaneously reducing antibiotic dependence. This alignment between welfare improvement and antimicrobial resistance prevention creates policy opportunities where welfare advocates and public health professionals share common ground and can work toward the same regulatory objectives.

What You Can Do

Support pork and poultry producers certified under welfare programs with antibiotic use monitoring.
Advocate for national bans on prophylactic and growth-promoting antibiotic use in livestock.
Understand that choosing higher-welfare animal products helps address antimicrobial resistance.
Support research into welfare-based disease prevention that reduces antibiotic dependence.