Lameness is the most common and welfare-significant disease in sheep, affecting up to 10% of UK flocks at any time. Prevention and prompt treatment are critical for welfare.
Sheep lameness welfare is shaped by two parallel failures: detection difficulty and treatment delay. Sheep's stoic behavior means they continue to graze and move even with moderate lameness — owners walking through flocks often miss all but the most severely affected animals. Systematic observation protocols and individual animal inspection are needed to identify cases at welfare-significant but not yet obvious severity. Treatment delay compounds welfare harm: every day of untreated footrot involves unnecessary pain and tissue damage that delays recovery. The five-point lameness plan provides a practical evidence-based framework for flock lameness reduction that simultaneously addresses welfare and economic productivity — a rare alignment of welfare and commercial interests that should facilitate adoption.