Animal Health & Welfare

Chronic pain from lameness is likely to significantly compromise animal welfare. Additionally, reduced performance and premature culling due to lameness costs the livestock industries millions of pounds annually and the condition requires further expenditure for the purchase and labour-intensive application of veterinary treatments. 

An animal suffering from lameness is less able to graze and compete for feed. As such, the consequences of lameness include:

• Decline in body condition
• Lower lambing percentage
• Lower lamb birth weight and hence reduced lamb viability
• Reduced milk production
• Reduced growth rate in lambs
• Lower fertility in rams
• Reduced wool growth

Prevention and early treatment of lameness is to the benefit of both the animals and the enterprise.

The most common causes of lameness in sheep are currently:

• Scald
• Footrot
• Contagious Ovine Digital Dermatitis (CODD)
• White line infections

Use the links on the left to get information on the diagnosis, prevention and treament of these conditions.

The Scottish Government Codes of Recommendations on sheep welfare (link to the right) suggest that animals with chronic lameness which do not respond to treatment should be culled rather than be left to suffer.  As transportation of animals in advanced states of lameness is forbidden, culling should be performed on the farm by a skilled person.   

To download the Defra booklet on Lameness in Sheep, use the link to the right.