How sheep express pain through behavior and why accurate pain recognition is essential for timely and appropriate welfare intervention.
Pain recognition in sheep has historically been limited by their stoic behavioral masking of distress, combined with the large flock sizes that make individual monitoring challenging. The development of validated pain assessment tools including facial action unit coding represents a significant scientific advance that is now filtering into practical welfare guidance. The welfare stakes are high - unrecognized pain means untreated suffering that persists until chance discovery or death. Training stockpeople to use systematic behavioral pain assessment is one of the most impactful investments in sheep welfare available to the industry.