Tick-borne diseases including louping ill and tick-borne fever cause significant welfare impacts in sheep on upland and moorland grazing systems.
Tick-borne diseases cause welfare impacts from fever, neurological damage, reduced production and secondary infections. Louping ill in lambs can cause high mortality. Welfare priorities include vaccination against louping ill, strategic acaricidal treatment at high-risk periods, avoiding movement of naive animals onto tick-infested pastures, and tick burden monitoring as a welfare outcome indicator.