Lameness is the most common health problem in sheep and causes significant suffering — prevention strategies and welfare implications.
Sheep lameness is a welfare problem of enormous scale — affecting hundreds of millions of sheep globally — and yet it is largely preventable with known management interventions. The welfare cost of untreated lameness includes prolonged pain measurable through behavioral observation and physiological markers, reduced body condition from difficulty grazing, and social disadvantage within the flock from reduced mobility. The five-point lameness plan developed by AHDB provides an evidence-based framework that, when implemented, reduces lameness prevalence from double figures to below 2% in monitored flocks. This represents one of the clearest examples in livestock welfare of a documented, affordable, and effective welfare improvement that is simply not being applied consistently enough.