Routine antibiotic use in livestock farming masks welfare problems while contributing to antimicrobial resistance - a dual welfare and public health crisis.
Antibiotic use in livestock is both a symptom of welfare problems and a mask that prevents them from being addressed. High-density, stressed animals in intensive systems are more susceptible to disease - antibiotics prevent the disease symptoms that would otherwise signal welfare failures. This creates a perverse dynamic: welfare improvements that reduce disease would reduce antibiotic use, but antibiotic use suppresses the visible signs that would drive welfare improvement. Farms transitioning to higher welfare systems show that antibiotic reduction and welfare improvement reinforce each other.