Why copper toxicity is a welfare emergency and how it is prevented in small ruminants.
Copper toxicity causes sudden acute welfare crisis — haemolytic anaemia, jaundice, and often death with no warning. By the time signs appear, hepatic copper accumulation has reached toxic levels and damage is largely irreversible. Welfare-focused management reads labels carefully, uses only species-appropriate mineral products, and never gives cattle products to sheep or goats. Losses from copper toxicity are entirely preventable with appropriate species awareness.