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. 2023 Sep 14;13(18):2913.
doi: 10.3390/ani13182913.

To Treat or Not to Treat: Public Attitudes on the Therapeutic Use of Antibiotics in the Dairy Industry-A Qualitative Study

Katharine F Knowlton  1 , Marina A G von Keyserlingk  2
Affiliations

To Treat or Not to Treat: Public Attitudes on the Therapeutic Use of Antibiotics in the Dairy Industry-A Qualitative Study

Katharine F Knowlton et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

This paper describes the views of 779 U.S. residents on questions related to therapeutic antibiotic use in dairy cattle. An online survey was conducted with qualitative (open-ended) questions. Respondents were offered one of three scenarios with varying degrees of information describing a farmer with a sick cow that would benefit from antibiotic therapy. The text replies to the open-ended questions were analyzed by grouping responses with similar comments and identifying patterns or themes. Content analysis showed that many of the participants in this study provided farmers with the social license to treat sick cows with antibiotics; however, some participants commented on the social license not necessarily extending to antibiotic use for growth promotion or prophylactic use. Our findings are not generalizable, but may provide some insight that should be considered when developing policies and practices regarding the use of antibiotics on dairy farms that may promote improved alignment with societal values.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance; consumer; dairy cattle; social license; therapeutic antibiotic use.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. K.F.K. grew up on a dairy farm in Connecticut and earned her B.S. in Animal Science at Cornell University, and an MSC and PhD degree at Michigan State and the University of Maryland, respectively. She is a professor in the School of Animal Sciences at Virginia Tech, where both her teaching and research focus on environmental issues affecting the dairy industry. M.A.G.v.K. grew up on a beef cattle ranch and earned her MSc and Ph.D. in Animal Science from the University of Alberta and UBC, respectively, before working for the feed industry for 7 years before returning to UBC as a faculty member. Her research focus is animal welfare, and she co-leads the UBC Animal Welfare Program. M.A.G.v.K. has published extensively in the social sciences literature on issues relating to farm-animal welfare.

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