Sheep mask pain behaviour as prey animals, making pain assessment challenging; the Sheep Pain Facial Action Coding System enables objective pain detection and improves treatment outcomes.
Sheep are among the most stoic of livestock species, hiding pain indicators to avoid appearing vulnerable to predators. This adaptation makes pain assessment by observation of behaviour unreliable. Validated facial action coding systems provide an objective, repeatable method for assessing pain state that does not depend on behavioural expression. Training stockpeople and veterinarians in these tools directly improves pain recognition and treatment rates across millions of sheep annually.