Changing the education of young farmers and vets to facilitate uptake of evidence-based managements for healthy feet in sheep

Project lead: Dr Rachel Clifton

In this project we are working with lecturers and students at agricultural colleges and veterinary schools in order to understand current teaching practices around treatment and management of lameness in sheep, and to identify barriers to changing teaching and beliefs. Ultimately, we aim to provide students with the most up to date evidence for best management of sheep feet.

Footrot is the most common cause of lameness in sheep in the UK, and is a major concern for animal welfare. It is estimated to cost the UK sheep industry between £24 and £80 million per annum. Since 2004 the level of lameness in sheep has fallen from an average 10% to 5%, and this coincided with new evidence regarding best practice for managing lameness in sheep, and increased efforts to disseminate this evidence to sheep farmers.

By providing students with easy access to evidence from the latest research regarding diagnosis and treatment of lameness in sheep, this project will improve the welfare of sheep in the UK, and increase the productivity and sustainability of UK sheep farms.

This project is being conducted in conjunction with the University of Warwick.

Research objectives

  • To conduct interviews with lecturers at agricultural colleges and veterinary schools across the UK to understand their current teaching and beliefs around lameness in sheep, and to identify barriers and strategies for change.
  • To conduct focus groups with students from agricultural colleges and veterinary schools across the UK to understand their current knowledge around lameness in sheep, their preferred learning methods, and key influences on their beliefs.

Outputs and impact

We have presented data from this study at events attended by college lecturers, veterinarians and researchers including:

  • Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Annual College Lecturers’ Day 2017
  • Sheep Veterinary Society Annual Meeting 2018
  • International Symposium on Ovine Footrot 2018

As part of this project we will develop electronic, free of charge materials for students and educators to use, based on the information gained during interviews and student discussions. We will benchmark beliefs and teaching before and after the provision of the new online resource to demonstrate the impact of the project.

Research team

Dr Rachel Clifton, University of Birmingham
Professor Laura Green, University of Birmingham
Dr Jasmeet Kaler, University of Nottingham

Partner organisations and sponsors

University of Warwick Impact Fund
Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)