Foot Bathing and Sheep Foot Health Welfare

Foot rot and foot scald cause significant lameness and pain in sheep. Foot bathing with zinc sulphate solution, combined with prompt treatment, reduces herd lameness prevalence significantly.

Key Facts

Lameness affects up to 10% of sheep in UK flocks at any given time
Foot rot caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum and Dichelobacter nodosus is the most common cause
Zinc sulphate foot bathing hardened the hoof and reduces bacterial load on foot skin
Collective foot bathing compliance of whole flocks is more effective than individual treatment
Five-point lameness plan including culling chronic cases has reduced flock lameness substantially in participating farms

Welfare Considerations

Sheep lameness causes chronic pain that significantly impairs welfare, reducing feed intake, grazing ability, and causing subordination in competitive feeding situations. The five-point plan for sheep lameness control integrates prompt treatment, foot bathing, vaccination, culling chronic cases, and avoiding buying in lameness, and has demonstrated substantial reductions in flock lameness prevalence. Farmers who implement the plan consistently achieve under 2% lame sheep, dramatically better than the 10% average seen across UK sheep flocks.

What You Can Do

Support sheep farmers in adopting the five-point lameness plan
Choose lamb from farms with documented low lameness prevalence
Advocate for lameness prevalence to be included in lamb assurance scheme requirements
Donate to AHDB sheep lameness research and farmer training programmes