Dental health is a critically important and often overlooked welfare factor in sheep, with poor dentition causing chronic malnutrition and unnecessary suffering.
Ewes with broken teeth or dental disease cannot graze effectively, progressively losing body condition despite appearing in a flock with adequate pasture. Chronic malnutrition causes immune suppression, increased parasite burden, and reduced lamb survival. Animals in pain from dental disease spend less time grazing and more time in abnormal postures. Recognition of dental welfare requires routine assessment that is often absent in extensive management systems. Ewes with severe dental disease who continue through additional lambing seasons suffer prolonged welfare compromise from both dental pain and nutritional deficit.