**3.2 Philosophy of judicious use of antimicrobials in line with animal welfare**

Animal agriculture by human needs to be predicated on ethical judgments where sub- or non-therapeutic use of antibiotics on food producing animals on ethical judgement scale seems to be objectionable. The problem is that food-animal producers do not realize the ethics in their business because they claim that the conditions and processes in the factory farm are not a matter of ethics but of a societal necessity to fulfil the feed demand of the population. These producers seem to fail to realize the ethical dimensions of their practices, not only for food safety issues for consumers, but also welfare issues for their animals [27]. Any policy judgment including the danger of tolerable resistance or the level of animal abuse tolerable for the sake of the benefits from antibiotics overuse in animal feed is the subject of ethical judgment [28]. Lack of treatment protocols and solidarity of animal from herd and stopping the course of treatment after apparently realizing the disappearance also comes under the purview of animal welfare.
