Pregnancy toxaemia (twin lamb disease) and hypocalcaemia in late-pregnant ewes cause severe welfare suffering that is largely preventable through appropriate nutrition and monitoring.
Pregnancy toxaemia causes one of the most distressing welfare pictures in sheep farming - ewes in a state of metabolic collapse, often with lambs still alive in utero, unable to rise and deteriorating over days without treatment. The condition is almost entirely preventable through appropriate body condition management and nutritional support in late pregnancy. It represents a failure of basic nutritional welfare monitoring rather than an unavoidable disease. Ewes that develop pregnancy toxaemia suffer substantially, and those that die before lambing carry unborn lambs that also die preventably. Investment in nutritional management prevents this suffering at both individual and flock level.