Hypothermia is the leading cause of neonatal lamb mortality in the UK, causing preventable suffering in millions of lambs each year that can be addressed through improved lambing management.
Hypothermic lambs experience progressive weakness, shivering, and loss of consciousness as core temperature falls. Without intervention, death follows within hours of birth in severe cases. The scale of this preventable welfare problem in UK sheep farming is significant: millions of lambs die from hypothermia annually, representing avoidable suffering. Appropriate shelter provision, close supervision during lambing, colostrum management, and warming facilities for affected lambs are practical interventions that substantially reduce this welfare burden. Training stockpersons to recognise and treat hypothermia early is among the highest-impact lambing welfare investments.