Sheep Lameness Scoring: The Foundation of Welfare Monitoring

Locomotion scoring is the essential tool for detecting and responding to the most prevalent welfare problem in sheep — lameness.

Key Facts

• Lameness affects 5-10% of sheep in typical UK flocks at any given time
• Lame sheep have significantly reduced quality of life — they eat less, move less, and lose condition
• A lameness prevalence above 2% indicates a welfare problem requiring investigation
• Locomotion scoring uses a 0-3 or 0-4 scale to categorize individual sheep by gait abnormality
• Prompt treatment of individually identified lame sheep is far more welfare-effective than flock-level treatments

Welfare Considerations

Regular locomotion scoring is the foundational welfare monitoring tool for sheep — without it, lameness prevalence in a flock remains unknown and welfare suffering goes unaddressed. A 10% lameness prevalence in a flock of 500 ewes means 50 individuals experiencing chronic pain, reduced feed intake, social displacement, and declining body condition. The welfare standard for sheep farming should target lameness prevalence below 2% — achieving this requires walking the whole flock through a single-file race or yard every 4-6 weeks, scoring each individual, and treating or flagging all those above score 1. Electronic individual identification through EID tags enables recording that tracks individual animals and identifies persistently lame individuals for culling decisions.

What You Can Do

• Implement 5-weekly lameness scoring as a farm key performance indicator
• Set a target lameness prevalence below 2% and investigate if the flock exceeds this threshold
• Treat all lame sheep within 3 days of identification — delayed treatment increases severity and treatment costs
• Record lameness scores individually using EID tags to track persistent cases
• Use the SCOPS (Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep) and Flock Health approach to integrate lameness into whole-farm welfare planning