Lameness is the most significant welfare problem in UK and European sheep farming. Structured prevention programs can dramatically reduce prevalence and suffering across entire flocks.
Sheep lameness prevention represents one of the clearest welfare-economics alignments in livestock farming. Lame sheep experience chronic pain that reduces feed intake, weight gain, wool production, and reproductive performance. The economic losses from lameness are substantial, creating business incentives that align with welfare goals. Prevention programs combining annual footrot vaccination, prompt treatment of early cases, footbathing, and culling of chronically lame animals have achieved dramatic prevalence reductions in participating flocks. The shift away from routine foot trimming as a management practice, based on evidence that it worsens rather than improves lameness, demonstrates how welfare science can change agricultural practice when producers are engaged with the evidence.