Reducing antibiotic use in pig farming is essential for public health, but poorly planned reduction can compromise individual pig welfare through inadequately treated bacterial infections.
Antibiotic reduction in pig farming creates a welfare tension: reducing prophylactic antibiotic use is essential for preserving effective human medicine, but removing antibiotics without equivalent welfare-protective measures can increase the incidence and severity of bacterial disease. The welfare imperative is to reduce antibiotic use while maintaining robust systems for identifying and treating individual sick animals with appropriate therapy when genuinely needed. Antibiotic reduction achieved through improved biosecurity, vaccination, nutrition, and management — rather than through undertreating sick animals — represents a genuine welfare improvement. Farms that achieve low antibiotic use through good animal health management demonstrate that reduction and welfare are compatible.