Livestock Antibiotics and Animal Welfare: Balancing Health and Stewardship

Antibiotics are essential for treating bacterial disease in farm animals, but overuse drives antimicrobial resistance, requiring careful stewardship that maintains welfare while protecting this critical resource.

Key Facts

UK veterinary antibiotic use has fallen over 50% since 2014 through a voluntary stewardship programme
Antibiotics should be used to treat sick animals, not as substitutes for good management and biosecurity
The highest priority critically important antibiotics (HPCIAs) should only be used as a last resort
Prophylactic antibiotic use (giving to healthy animals at risk) is now discouraged but still occurs
Reducing antibiotic use must be achieved through improved management, not through denying treatment to sick animals

Welfare Considerations

The welfare tension in antibiotic stewardship is real: sick animals need effective antibiotics to recover and avoid suffering, yet overuse drives resistance that threatens future treatment efficacy. The solution is not to reduce treatment of suffering animals but to prevent the disease and management failures that create the need for treatment. High stocking densities, poor biosecurity, and inadequate nutrition drive antibiotic dependency. Improving these management foundations reduces both disease incidence and antibiotic use while improving welfare.

What You Can Do

Support farming systems that prioritise disease prevention through management over antibiotic use
Ask farmers and food producers about their antibiotic use and stewardship commitments
Oppose overuse of antibiotics in farming but equally oppose denial of treatment to suffering animals
Support the UK's responsible use medicine programme (RUMA) and its antibiotic stewardship work
Understand that reducing antibiotic use must come through disease prevention, not reduced welfare