Metabolic diseases including pregnancy toxaemia and hypocalcaemia affect sheep welfare significantly, particularly around lambing. Evidence-based nutritional management prevents most cases.
Metabolic disease in pregnant ewes represents welfare failure that is almost entirely preventable through basic nutritional management. The combination of poor body condition entering pregnancy and inadequate supplementation in late pregnancy creates a predictable pathway to pregnancy toxaemia - a condition causing progressive suffering and death in pregnant animals. Routine body condition scoring, which takes minutes per animal, identifies at-risk ewes early enough for intervention. The welfare obligation is straightforward: monitor body condition throughout pregnancy, supplement appropriately, and have treatment protocols ready for the cases that still occur. Farms that achieve low metabolic disease rates demonstrate that prevention is achievable.