Footrot is a highly contagious bacterial infection causing severe lameness in sheep, representing one of the most significant welfare problems in sheep farming globally and requiring systematic flock management.
Sheep with severe footrot endure continuous, significant lameness pain. Their natural response — kneeling on forelimbs to graze while avoiding weight on infected feet — causes secondary pain from prolonged abnormal posture. Affected sheep eat less, lose body condition rapidly, and in breeding ewes, have dramatically reduced reproductive performance. The highly social nature of sheep means that lame individuals fall behind the flock, experience social isolation, and are more vulnerable to predation. Lameness scoring has demonstrated that significant pain from footrot often goes unrecognized by farmers who habituate to seeing lame sheep as a normal flock feature. The combination of preventable disease, available effective treatments, and persistent undertreatment makes footrot a priority target for sheep welfare improvement.