Farm Animal Welfare

Farm Sheep: Breeding for Welfare Traits

Genetic selection in sheep can directly target welfare-relevant traits including resistance to footrot, internal parasites, and reproductive efficiency.

Key Facts

Internal parasite resistance has a moderate heritability and can be improved through selection
Footrot resistance is partly heritable and reduces the incidence of this painful condition
Maternal traits including milk production and ease of lambing affect lamb welfare and mortality
Scrapie resistance through ARR allele selection eliminates a fatal neurological disease
Facial eczema resistance in susceptible breeds reduces this severely painful condition

Welfare Considerations

Breeding decisions have long-term welfare consequences that compound across generations. Selecting for welfare-relevant traits including disease resistance, maternal behaviour, and structural soundness reduces the welfare burden of common disease conditions across the entire flock. Investment in genetic improvement for welfare traits provides sustainable, compounding welfare benefit that management changes alone cannot achieve.

What You Can Do

Include welfare-relevant EBVs (estimated breeding values) in ram selection decisions
Use genotyping to identify animals with favourable welfare trait alleles
Participate in breed society health schemes that capture welfare trait data
Contribute performance recording data to improve the accuracy of EBVs for your breed
Work with your vet and genetics advisor to develop a welfare-focused breeding strategy