Small Project and Travel Awards
International Symposium on ovine footrot
An important element of UFAW’s work is to ensure that knowledge about the latest developments in animal welfare are disseminated. One way it does this is by running or supporting meetings on specific, important, topics in animal welfare.
In 2018 UFAW supported Dr Rachel Clifton to organise a symposium on footrot in sheep. Footrot is an infectious bacterial disease that affects domesticated sheep worldwide and is the most common cause of lameness in the UK – present in 90% of UK flocks. Lame sheep experience pain and reduced welfare and in 2011 the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) issued an Opinion on Lameness in Sheep recommending that the level of lameness be reduced to 2% or less by 2021, with an interim target of 5% or less by 2016 (the prevalence at the time of this recommendation was around 10%). The 5% target has been reached by the majority of farmers (which equates to a reduction of 1.7 million lame sheep at any one time given that there are approximately 34 million sheep (breeding ewes, lambs, and rams) in the UK) and some flocks have achieved a prevalence of less than 2%, but work is ongoing to achieve a more widespread reduction in lameness.
The two-day symposium, held at the University of Warwick and attended by 22 researchers from five different European countries, brought together international experts in ovine footrot to present their findings from recent research and to discuss approaches to reducing lameness. The event was structured into two sessions: the first focused on the aetiology and pathogenesis of footrot, and the second on control programs and increasing uptake of new evidence.
One of the speakers at the symposium was Dr Jasmeet Kaler. Dr Kaler was the winner of UFAW’s Young Animal Welfare Scientist of the Year award in 2015 for her work on lameness in sheep and one of her key findings was that foot trimming, a routine management practice performed by many shepherds to prevent or treat lameness, actually delays healing. Jasmeet Kaler’s research has influenced government policy (including the FAWC Opinion on Lameness in Sheep) and industry guidelines for best practice. At the symposium, Dr Kaler spoke about her more recent work using precision technology to electronically identify lame sheep.
Discussion periods allowed those present to talk more about country variations, such as the slightly different scoring systems used when assessing footrot, and the benefits of developing and using a common footrot scoring system to enable comparisons between different studies and countries. There was also a meeting at the end of the event to determine the best strategies for ongoing collaborative footrot research. Dr Clifton hopes that the event will influence research and control strategies for footrot in multiple countries with significant benefits for sheep health and welfare.
