Lameness is among the most significant welfare problems in sheep farming globally. Footrot, CODD, and white line disease cause painful lameness affecting millions of sheep every year.
Sheep lameness causes persistent pain that affects grazing, social behaviour, and reproductive performance. Lame sheep struggle to travel to pasture and water, lose body condition, and experience social disadvantage within the flock hierarchy. The stoic nature of sheep means lameness must be significant before it is visually obvious, and by this stage animals may have been suffering for days or weeks. The chronic lameness problem in many flocks reflects delayed treatment, inadequate pain relief, and failure to implement preventive programs. The welfare case for proactive lameness management is clear: achieving low lameness prevalence requires systemic flock-level interventions, not just treating individual lame animals reactively.