Food animals

In the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, countries are urged to improve how antibiotics are used. For the animal sector, this includes phasing out use of antibiotics for growth promotion, reducing routine use, and making sure antibiotics are used correctly when needed.

Raising food animals is fundamental for people’s livelihoods, the economy and food security, all of which will be threatened if animal diseases are not treated when needed. Antibiotic treatment is necessary for certain animal diseases to ensure survival, welfare, productivity and to reduce spread of disease.

What is rational use of antibiotics?

Rational use means to limit antibiotic use to when it is medically needed, and to use antibiotics correctly. This includes choosing the right antibiotic, at the right dose, for the right length of time. Both national and international treatment guidelines are available to help support these decisions. Ideally, these should reflect each country’s situation, including which antibiotics are available and local resistance levels. To ensure antibiotics are used sustainably in food animals; animal health, production practices and socio‑economic factors must also be considered.

Healthier animals need less antibiotics

It is common that antibiotics are given to whole groups of animals routinely to prevent or control disease outbreaks. In many cases, routine use of antibiotics is unnecessary and can be reduced by improving animal husbandry practices and biosecurity. The long-term goal of rational use efforts should be to promote a transition to farming systems where routine use of antibiotics is not needed. Learn more in Prevent infection: Food animals.

Barriers to rational use

The use of antibiotics in food animal production creates a legitimate conflict of interest. Farmers need to make a living, and may perceive that routine antibiotic use is necessary to protect productivity. Farmers may worry that being more selective in their use of antibiotics will lead to more sick animals and lower production. On the other hand, we need to reduce antibiotic use globally to limit antibiotic resistance. At the same time, growing demand for animal protein is driving an intensification of animal farming which, in turn, accelerates the use of antibiotics.

Incentives to reduce use can also be undermined. In many countries, selling antibiotics is an important source of income for animal health workers and pharmacists. Therefore, they have little motivation to discourage use. They may also worry that farmers will be dissatisfied if antibiotics are not provided. In places where the pharmaceutical market is unregulated and prescriptions are not required, high costs or limited access to veterinary advice can push farmers to treat animals themselves. In worst cases, farmers are unaware they are feeding their animals antibiotics, as these can be mixed into ready‑made feed or vitamin supplements.

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