Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p> <bold>Background:</bold> Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a One Health governance problem linking human medicine, food-animal production, food safety, and environmental protection. This study explains why producers who recognize AMR and food-safety risks may still continue practices that conflict with prudent antimicrobial stewardship. <bold>Methods:</bold> Using a sequential mixed-methods design, this study examines antimicrobial-use compliance among 3,647 Chinese food-animal producers surveyed across eight provinces between March and September 2025, with an embedded 2 × 2 × 2 vignette experiment and a behavioral-validation subsample of 412 producers. <bold>Results:</bold> AMR risk awareness was positively associated with One Health responsibility (β = 0.42, SE = 0.03, p < 0.001) and compliance (β = 0.16, SE = 0.04, p < 0.001), while One Health responsibility was strongly associated with compliance (β = 0.48, SE = 0.03, p < 0.001). The indirect association through responsibility was substantial (β = 0.20, 95% CI [0.16, 0.24]), but the conversion of responsibility into compliance depended on institutional conditions: regulatory trust and veterinary trust strengthened the pathway, whereas administrative burden weakened it. The vignette experiment showed that One Health framing, support-oriented regulation, and veterinary support increased stated compliance intention. Record validation indicated moderate agreement with self-reports and 12-18% over-reporting for record keeping and withdrawal-period compliance. <bold>Conclusion:</bold> The study contributes to food-safety governance, One Health implementation, and administrative-burden theory by showing that risk awareness becomes stewardship behavior only when responsibility is supported by trusted institutions, credible veterinary advice, and low-burden compliance pathways. </p>