The campaign educates vets on sheep foot health.

The Sheep Antibiotic Guardian Group (SAGG) have launched the #HealthyFeetHappySheep campaign, to raise awareness for sheep foot health.

The industry-wide campaign, which was launched 7 September, sees a collaboration across the industry to educate and inform farmers and veterinary surgeons on all aspects of sheep foot health.

Veterinary surgeons will be able to access a downloadable toolkit on the website to support them with undertaking Healthy Feet flock visits, as well as the latest resources to help run Flock Health Clubs and sheep farmer meetings.

The campaign, led by SAGG, suggests that veterinary surgeons incorporate foot examinations into a tuberculosis or legal prescribing visit, and to utilise a Five Point Plan to prevent cases occurring.

There will also be short films featuring sheep veterinary surgeons Phillipa Page and Joe Angell, farmers from the HCC Stoc+ program and celebrity sheep farmer Gareth Wyn Jones.

The films will be released on social media and their website over the next few weeks.

Practices are encouraged to hold their own ‘Lameness Amnesty’ or ‘Healthy Feet week’ to spread awareness throughout the team.

The campaign involves partnership from organisations including MSD Animal Health, RCVS Knowledge and the Sheep Veterinary Society, and will run from September- December 2023.

Fiona Lovatt, an independent specialist sheep veterinary surgeon who developed the campaign, said: “We all know that maintaining healthy feet in flocks not only benefits sheep welfare but improves farmer well-being with less time, money and stress being diverted to dealing with lameness issues,

“A sound flock always means better flock sustainability and overall performance.

“We have plenty of evidence to show that we need to use injectable antibiotics to effectively treat lame sheep, but we are encouraging the use of ‘Plan Prevent Protect’ principles to reduce the chances of sheep going lame in the first place. Currently, the majority of antibiotics used in the sheep sector are for dealing with lameness, hence our emphasis on maintaining healthy feet.

The campaign will be hosted on the #HealthyFeetHappySheep website.

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