Animal Health & Welfare

Lambs are born without antibodies to protect them against disease so they need a good supply of antibody-rich colostrum from the ewe to gain protection against infection. As such, sheep up to a year old are particularly vulnerable to environmental stresses and diseases compared with older sheep.

Lamb mortality is typically around 15% in the UK. This rate of mortality is of concern both from an economic and welfare perspective. Practical ways to reduce these losses should be considered by producers.

The major causes of lamb death and methods of prevention are described in the tabs to the left and in the pdf file to the right.

A recent Defra document on improving lamb survival can also be found using the link to the right.