Antibiotic Stewardship in Livestock: Animal Welfare and Resistance

Antibiotic use in livestock affects both individual animal welfare (through treatment of infections) and global public health (through antimicrobial resistance), requiring careful stewardship.

Key Facts

Global livestock antibiotic use exceeds human use by volume, with China, USA, and Brazil as largest consumers.
Critically important antibiotics (CIAs) including colistin and carbapenems are still used in livestock in many countries.
EU banned antibiotic growth promotion in 2006; similar bans now exist in UK and USA, but compliance varies globally.
High stocking density and poor husbandry create conditions where antibiotics become essential to prevent mass mortality.
Welfare and antibiotic use are linked: animals in poor welfare states have higher disease burdens requiring more treatment.

Welfare Considerations

The relationship between animal welfare and antibiotic use is bidirectional and important. Animals in poor welfare conditions — overcrowded, stressed, nutritionally compromised — have impaired immune function and higher infection rates, requiring more antibiotic treatment. Improving welfare is therefore both an animal welfare and a public health imperative. However, restricting antibiotic access without improving welfare conditions causes individual animals to suffer untreated infections — a direct welfare harm. Responsible stewardship involves treating sick animals appropriately with the narrowest-spectrum effective antibiotic, improving husbandry to reduce disease incidence, and investing in vaccination programmes. The One Health framework explicitly links livestock welfare, antibiotic use, and human health outcomes.

What You Can Do

Choose meat and dairy from farms with third-party welfare certification (RSPCA Assured, organic).
Support One Health policies linking livestock welfare improvement to antibiotic stewardship.
Advocate for binding international targets on agricultural antibiotic use.
Donate to Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics which campaigns for responsible livestock antibiotic use.
Ask retailers about antibiotic stewardship policies in their supply chains.