Antimicrobial stewardship programmes in cattle farming must balance reducing antibiotic use with ensuring animals with bacterial infections receive effective treatment, creating welfare trade-offs requiring careful management.
Antimicrobial stewardship must never translate into withholding effective treatment from animals with bacterial disease. Cattle with untreated mastitis, pneumonia, or septicaemia experience prolonged suffering while resistance to treatment develops. The welfare obligation is to prevent infection through good management and vaccination, then treat effectively and promptly when infection occurs. Stewardship that compromises welfare through under-treatment is as problematic as overuse.