Antibiotic resistance driven partly by agricultural overuse threatens both animal welfare and human health, creating an urgent case for responsible use that benefits both people and animals.
The antibiotic resistance welfare connection is bidirectional. Poor animal welfare - chronic stress, inadequate nutrition, overcrowding - creates disease pressure that drives antibiotic use. Reducing antibiotic dependence therefore requires improving the underlying welfare conditions. From the animal welfare perspective, antibiotic resistance means that when animals do get sick, available treatments may be less effective, causing longer periods of untreated or under-treated illness. Prophylactic antibiotic use has masked welfare problems that now must be addressed through genuine welfare improvement rather than pharmaceutical cover. The One Health framework - recognising animal, human, and environmental health as interconnected - makes welfare improvement central to antibiotic stewardship.