New Delhi, Nov. 11 -- There is a particular request veterinarians hear remarkably often: "Can you just give him an antibiotic?" The dog has diarrhoea. The cat has started sneezing. There is an itchy patch of skin, a wound, a cough, or a slightly abnormal blood report. Somewhere along the way, antibiotics have acquired a reputation as the medicine you add when you want to make sure you are treating something.

They are not. Antibiotics treat bacterial infections. They do not treat viruses, allergies, inflammation or most causes of diarrhoea. Sometimes the correct treatment really is an antibiotic. Sometimes good veterinary medicine means deliberately not prescribing one.

This matters because antimicrobial resistance is no longer a distant...