Antibiotic overuse in livestock farming drives antimicrobial resistance that threatens both animal and human health. Stewardship - using antibiotics only when clinically necessary and at appropriate doses - is both a welfare and public health obligation.
Antibiotic stewardship and animal welfare are not in conflict - they are aligned. Antibiotic overuse creates resistant bacteria that make future infections in animals more difficult and painful to treat. Animals that cannot be treated effectively because their pathogens are resistant to available antibiotics suffer more, not less. Stewardship means using antibiotics precisely when they are needed, at the right dose, for the appropriate duration - this is also the welfare-maximising approach. The welfare problem arises when cost pressure leads to delayed treatment of sick animals, or when infection risk is managed by maintaining animals in conditions so overcrowded and unhygienic that antibiotic prophylaxis seems necessary.