Footrot is a painful and highly contagious bacterial infection of sheep feet. Effective prevention and treatment is essential to reduce the significant welfare burden this disease places on sheep populations.
Footrot causes severe and prolonged pain that significantly compromises the welfare of affected sheep. Lame sheep have difficulty competing for feed, are more vulnerable to other diseases, and experience chronic discomfort that affects every aspect of their daily life. The contagious nature of footrot means that prevention through biosecurity and vaccination is more effective than treating established disease. Flocks with high footrot prevalence that do not implement active control programmes are allowing preventable suffering to continue. The economic cost of footrot in production losses provides additional justification for investment in control programmes.