Diseases affecting sheep

Diseases can have varying impacts on welfare, productivity and profitability. They account for significant financial losses, compromise animal welfare and increase the environmental footprint of your livestock. Understanding what might be circulating in your flock is a vital first step in managing, controlling and minimising the impact of diseases.

Plan

Creating an active, flexible and bespoke health plan enables you to minimise the impact of disease and improve the effectiveness of disease control measures on your farm by managing protocols, product choices and time of application.

Working with your vet to plan ahead and make informed decisions about the best use of medicines on your farm can also increase flock productivity and labour efficiency, and slow the development of drug resistance.

Prevent

Implementing good biosecurity measures on your farm is one of the most effective ways you can reduce disease.

By preventing disease on your farm, you will save money and time incurred by treating sick animals, as well as reduce the need for reactive treatments and improve flock health and welfare and your environmental footprint.

Protect

Protecting your livestock with vaccines alongside measuring and monitoring colostrum ensures sheep get the best start in life, improves immunity and, subsequently, reduces the need for antibiotics.

Current disease prevention activity

Some of the key activities we are currently working on include:

Abortion 

Most cases of sheep abortion are caused by infectious agents such as chlamydia, toxoplasma, campylobacter and border disease virus.

Abortion may also be caused by listeria, salmonella, E. coli, bluetongue virus and Schmallenberg virus.

Investigate any cases of abortion with your vet promptly to reduce further losses; post-mortem examination can be a useful tool.

Ewe management

Keeping ewes in a good body condition and feeding the right diet to meet the changing needs throughout the year is essential.

When these needs are not met during pregnancy, the chances of problems such as metabolic diseases and hypocalcaemia increases.

At lambing

Colostrum

Ensuring all lambs receive adequate colostrum immediately after birth is crucial for lamb survival.

Ingesting sufficient colostrum provides lambs with essential immunoglobulins to help protect them against diseases. 

Remember the three Qs: Quantity, Quality and Quickly.

Joint-ill 

Joint-ill is caused by an infection usually through the navel in newly born lambs and through tagging, docking or castration wounds in slightly older lambs.

This often presents with swollen, painful joints, lameness and the inability to walk if the infection spreads to the spine. 

Watery mouth  

Watery mouth is an infectious bacterial disease in newborn lambs. Affected lambs are lethargic, drool, constipated, have a high temperature and can die within hours. Good colostrum management and hygiene at lambing is important in preventing/reducing cases of this disease.

Growing lambs

Mastitis 

Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary gland, often caused by a bacterial infection and can present as subclinical infection or clinical disease.

It leads to loss of udder function and reduced milk production, which will negatively impact lamb growth and can be fatal for the ewe.

Orf

Orf is a viral skin condition that largely affects animals in their first year of life.

It is highly contagious and can spread to the ewe’s udder during suckling, affecting the ewe's teats and increasing their risk of mastitis.

Orf is painful and can significantly reduce growth and survival rates for lambs.

Trace element deficiencies

Deficiencies in any of the trace elements will impact the health and production of the flock as well as growth rates, fertility, body condition, sperm viability and clinical disease.

All age groups can be affected throughout the production cycle.

Internal parasites

Controlling internal parasites in sheep with responsible use of anthelmintics is vital to maintain good growth rates and profitable sheep systems.

Heavy burdens in lambs often result in stunted growth and fatalities.

Monitoring and diagnosing makes parasite treatments more sustainable and minimises the potential environmental impact.

External parasites

External parasites are those which live on the outside of the animal's body. 

For sheep flocks in the UK these include lice, ticks, sheep scab and blowfly larvae.

Sudden death

Two common causes of sudden death include clostridial infections and pasteurella diseases.

Investigate any cases of sudden death with your vet promptly to reduce further losses.

Post-mortem examination can be a useful tool.

All year round

Lameness

Lameness is one of the most common and persistent disease problems in sheep.

Footrot alone is estimated to cost the sheep industry between £20m–£80m each year and negatively impacts welfare.

Eye diseases

Eye diseases are common in sheep and are usually caused by infection, trauma to the eye from a foreign body, in-turned eyelids in lambs and metabolic diseases.

Flock-level, production-limiting diseases

Also known as 'iceberg diseases', their presence in the flock leads to poor production, weight loss and clinically ill sheep.

Neurological conditions

There are many conditions in sheep that present with neurological signs.

Notifiable diseases

Notifiable diseases are diseases that you are legally obliged to report to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), even if you only suspect an animal is affected.

If you suspect a notifiable disease, you must report it immediately by calling the Defra Rural Services Helpline on 03000 200 301. Failure to do so is an offence.

In Wales, contact 0300 303 8268. In Scotland, contact your local Field Services Office.

Horizon scanning

We actively look for emerging threats – be that new diseases, welfare issues or medicines availability.

We focus on threats affecting animal welfare, humans, and food safety and security. We do this through collaborations – both nationally and internationally – with experts, stakeholders and the farming community.