Farm

Sheep Footrot Management and Lameness Welfare

Footrot is a bacterial infection causing severe lameness in sheep, with welfare and economic impacts that make effective flock management essential.

Key Facts

Footrot affects up to 10% of sheep in some UK flocks at any one time
Dichelobacter nodosus bacteria cause the characteristic interdigital tissue damage
Effective vaccines are available and can eliminate footrot from entire flocks over 3-5 years
Prompt individual treatment with parenteral antibiotics and topical zinc sulphate reduces severity

Welfare Considerations

Footrot causes severe pain with every step. Untreated cases lead to chronic tissue damage and secondary fly strike. Effective vaccines mean that significant footrot prevalence represents a preventable welfare failure. Herd vaccination programmes have dramatically reduced lamb lameness in well-managed flocks.

What You Can Do

Support adoption of footrot vaccination programmes in sheep flocks
Advocate for lameness monitoring targets in sheep welfare certification
Engage with farm vet partnerships focused on footrot eradication programmes