Position on Responsible Use of Antibiotics in Animals

Zoetis supports the responsible use of antibiotic medicines in animals and in people. With few alternatives today for treating life-threatening bacterial infections in animals, antibiotics are essential to animal health and, in turn, to their welfare.

Our vision is a world where veterinary antibiotics are used responsibly in animals, and where they maintain their value as a therapeutic tool. Responsible use of antibiotics in food-producing animals makes a difference in being able to meet the challenge of maintaining and increasing food safety and food security.

We recognize that animal and human health are interdependent. Zoetis advocates for taking a One Health approach to the responsible use of antibiotics across human and veterinary medicine. Healthy animals help reduce the risk of zoonotic infectious diseases that can pass between animals and people. And healthy livestock, poultry, and fish are essential to a safe, sustainable food supply.

We advocate for the health of animals and for the veterinarians and livestock farmers who care for them.

• We believe that veterinary professionals should be involved in decisions about the use of antibiotic medicines in animals to protect animal and human health, to assure the safety of the food supply, and to help reduce the risk of resistance.
• We assure that veterinarians and livestock farmers have access to a wide range of solutions from our portfolio:  vaccines to help prevent disease; genetic tests and pioneering digital innovation to help predict it earlier than ever before; diagnostics to detect disease and monitor health with point-of-care tools, and when disease occurs, to use antibiotics responsibly and properly.
• Our veterinarians and field representatives support our customers by sharing knowledge on responsible use of our antibiotic medicines and animal health and husbandry protocols that can help prevent common diseases.
• We conduct surveillance for antimicrobial resistance in pathogens that threaten the health of animal species to help preserve the efficacy of antibiotics.
  
  

We innovate by investing in research and development to provide our customers with new and enhanced solutions to better predict, prevent and treat disease in the animals under their care. These include vaccines, new classes of antibiotics for veterinary use only, novel, non-antibiotic anti-infective solutions, diagnostics, genetic tests and digital innovation for precision farming.

We collaborate in a One Health approach, working with leaders from the veterinary and human health professions, food industry, and public health to advance the responsible use of antibiotics and preserve animal health and welfare.