Cattle Antibiotics and Welfare Stewardship

Responsible antibiotic use in cattle is both a welfare and a public health issue, requiring treatment protocols that ensure sick animals are treated while minimising unnecessary use.

Key Facts

Antibiotic resistance threatens both human medicine and the ability to treat cattle disease
Prescribing responsibility rests with veterinarians, but implementation is by farmers
Highest priority critically important antibiotics should be reserved for disease not controllable otherwise
Recording antibiotic use enables benchmarking against sector targets
Welfare and stewardship are complementary - sick animals should be treated promptly and appropriately

Welfare Considerations

Antibiotic stewardship and animal welfare are not in conflict - they are complementary. Prompt treatment of genuinely sick animals is both a welfare imperative and appropriate antibiotic use. Unnecessary prophylactic treatment of healthy animals is both poor stewardship and unnecessary medication. The welfare-stewardship aligned approach treats disease promptly and appropriately, prevents disease through management and vaccination, and avoids unnecessary antibiotic exposure.

What You Can Do

Support farms with veterinary-guided antibiotic stewardship programmes
Advocate for antibiotic use recording and benchmarking in cattle farming
Choose beef and dairy from farms demonstrating responsible antibiotic use