Livestock Antibiotic Use and Welfare

The overuse of antibiotics in livestock farming creates both animal welfare problems through disease burden and global health risks through antimicrobial resistance.

Key Facts

Approximately 70% of medically important antibiotics globally are used in livestock, not human medicine
Prophylactic antibiotic use — giving healthy animals antibiotics to prevent disease — is a major driver of resistance
Animals in high-density conditions require more antibiotics to prevent disease outbreaks
The EU banned growth-promoting antibiotics in 2006; the US restricted but did not ban similar uses
Antibiotic-resistant infections kill an estimated 700,000 people per year globally with projections rising dramatically

Welfare Considerations

Antibiotic overuse in farming reflects and enables poor welfare conditions. Animals kept in crowded, stressful conditions become immunocompromised and disease-prone, requiring antibiotics that healthy animals in better conditions would not need. This creates a feedback loop: poor welfare drives antibiotic dependence, antibiotic resistance drives disease burden, and disease creates welfare harms. Reducing antibiotic use requires improving the welfare conditions that make it necessary.

What You Can Do

Choose animal products from farms with documented antibiotic stewardship programs
Advocate for a complete ban on prophylactic antibiotic use in livestock farming
Support medical organizations calling for antibiotic use reduction in agriculture
Reduce consumption of animal products from intensive farming systems that drive antibiotic dependence
Engage with the antimicrobial resistance issue as both a human health and animal welfare issue