Sheep are stoic animals that mask pain, making welfare assessment challenging. Validated pain assessment tools enable earlier detection and treatment of painful conditions.
Sheep pain management represents a significant welfare gap in livestock farming. The stoic nature of sheep, combined with the economic constraints of low-value livestock management, means that painful conditions including lameness, dystocia and post-surgical pain are frequently left untreated. The development and validation of sheep-specific pain assessment tools including facial action unit systems has provided farmers and vets with practical means of detecting pain that previously required subjective interpretation. Routine administration of analgesics for known painful procedures — castration, docking, foot trimming — is achievable at modest cost and produces measurable welfare improvement. Training farmers in pain recognition is the critical implementation step.