PIG‑PARADIGM: A One Health approach to reducing antibiotic use in livestock

Senior researcher Dr. Nuria Canibe from Department of Veterinary Science, Aarhus University, explains that the project’s impact reaches far beyond the barn.

“Most of our work is about having robust pigs so they don’t need so much antibiotics. If we reduce the use, we’ve already achieved something important,” she says.

“As you know, PIG‑PARADIGM investigates how nutritional strategies can improve piglet health around weaning — a period when pigs are especially vulnerable to gut disorders and often receive antibiotics. Better gut health means fewer treatments. And fewer treatments reduce the pressure that drives antimicrobial resistance”, Canibe clarifies.

That is precisely where One Health enters the picture.

According to Canibe, the One Health framework — which links human, animal, environmental and even plant health — played a decisive role for the realization of the PIG-PARADIGM project. The One Health relevance made the difference,” she notes.

Although the project does not yet include formal human or environmental work packages, its outcomes directly influence both areas. Antibiotic use on farms does not stay on farms. Resistance genes can travel via manure into soil, water, and plants, forming part of the wider ecosystem.

“If we can reduce the number of resistance genes in the pigs’ gut, we also reduce what ends up in the environment. That brings us closer to One Health,” she says.

Canibe highlights that the aim is not only healthier animals but healthier systems.

“The goal is healthier pigs — yes — but also less resistance in the entire cycle,” she says. “If the interventions don’t change resistance, then we haven’t solved that part of the problem.”

To get even closer to the One Health ideal, Canibe envisions broader collaboration between disciplines. She points out that true One Health research requires veterinarians, medical doctors, plant scientists, environmental specialists — even anthropologists — working together.

“Real collaboration means learning each other’s language. It’s not enough to work in parallel and report at the end,” she explains.

According to Canibe, international studies already show that higher antibiotic use leads to more resistance genes in pigs’ microbiomes. By developing feeding strategies that reduce disease pressure, PIG‑PARADIGM aims to demonstrate the reverse effect: that fewer treatments mean fewer resistance genes — and therefore less risk for the environment and for humans, she says.

Canibe stresses that this broader impact is precisely why the project matters.

“We reduce antibiotic use, and that reduces resistance. That’s our contribution to One Health — even if the project isn’t labelled that way.”

In practice, PIG‑PARADIGM shows how livestock research can contribute to a major societal challenge: stopping antimicrobial resistance before it spreads further across ecosystems.

“Even small improvements at the farm level can make a difference globally,” Canibe says.

And that may be the clearest example of One Health at work: the understanding that healthier pigs mean a healthier environment — and ultimately, healthier people.

FACT BOX: What is One Health?

One Health is an integrated approach recognizing that the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment are closely connected. The concept highlights that issues like antibiotic resistance, zoonotic diseases, and environmental contamination n cannot be solved by one sector alone.