Routine antibiotic use in livestock to promote growth and prevent disease in poor conditions drives antimicrobial resistance while masking welfare problems. Stewardship programs improve both animal welfare and public health.
The link between antibiotic stewardship and animal welfare is direct: healthy animals in good conditions need fewer antibiotics. High levels of antibiotic use in a livestock system are a proxy indicator of poor underlying welfare conditions - overcrowding, stress, inadequate nutrition, and poor hygiene create pathogen pressure that drives disease requiring treatment. Reducing antibiotic use without improving underlying conditions leads to increased animal suffering from preventable disease. The responsible approach pairs antibiotic reduction with genuine welfare improvements. When this is done well, both animal welfare and antibiotic stewardship improve simultaneously. Farms achieving high production with low antibiotic use demonstrate that these goals are complementary rather than contradictory.