Enterotoxemia — overeating disease — is caused by Clostridium perfringens toxins and kills sheep rapidly, often without warning, representing a preventable welfare crisis in intensively managed and rapidly growing flocks.
Enterotoxemia deaths represent a welfare failure that is almost entirely preventable. The disease kills quickly — often within hours of the onset of toxin production — meaning affected animals may die in acute neurological distress without farmers having the opportunity to intervene. Prevention through vaccination, careful dietary management, and gradual introduction of high-energy feeds is vastly superior to treatment. Farmers who vaccinate their flocks consistently, ensure lambs receive adequate colostrum, and manage diet transitions slowly experience dramatically lower enterotoxemia mortality. Extension programmes that make vaccination accessible and affordable in lower-income sheep-farming regions can eliminate this source of suffering at scale.