Why are antibiotics used in livestock and poultry production?
Antibiotics are used in animals for the same reasons they are used in humans: to treat and control diseases and ensure health. Two terms that are frequently used to describe antibiotic use in for livestock and poultry production are “therapeutic” and “sub-therapeutic.” When an animal exhibits clinical signs of an illness or a condition like a respiratory infection or a skin infection, a veterinarian may prescribe an antibiotic drug to treat that condition – just as a doctor would with a human that is sick. This approach is called a “therapeutic” use of prescriptions. “Subtherapeutic” refers to the use of antibiotics in a preventative manner. For example, veterinarians use antibiotics to prevent disease at vulnerable times, such as weaning, when animals are very susceptible to disease that can kill them quickly, sometimes in less than 24 hours. Rather than wait for a full-blown infection to manifest and spread throughout the entire herd, some producers, under the careful supervision of
