Flystrike — blowfly larvae feeding on living sheep — is an excruciatingly painful condition causing death within days that is preventable through proactive summer management.
Flystrike is one of the most severe acute welfare emergencies in sheep farming — a condition where the animal is literally being eaten alive while still conscious, causing pain that is evident from the unmistakable distress behaviour of affected sheep. The welfare horror of advanced flystrike — maggots consuming living tissue, sheep unable to eat or drink, seeking shade and exhibiting obvious agony — is preventable through management that sheep farmers can implement. Daily observation during high-risk periods, prompt treatment of struck sheep, preventive insecticide treatment, control of dag through shearing and nutrition, and breed selection for less flystrike-prone sheep types are all available tools. The critical welfare factor is farmer vigilance: a strike detected and treated within hours causes far less suffering than one found a day later.