The growing crisis of antibiotic resistance threatens the welfare of both animals and humans, as treatments that currently prevent and treat painful infections become ineffective.
Antimicrobial resistance represents a slow-motion welfare catastrophe affecting both humans and animals. As antibiotics lose effectiveness, infections that are currently treatable will become untreatable or require prolonged, painful management with second-line alternatives. Animals already experience AMR's welfare consequences: wounds that will not heal, pneumonias that do not respond to treatment, surgical procedures that cannot be done safely. The contribution of agriculture to resistance development creates a shared responsibility: reducing prophylactic antibiotic use in livestock not only serves public health but protects the welfare of future animals who will need effective antibiotics when genuinely ill.