Bare-bum sheep may stop mulesing
An apparent genetic mutation that has left some Australian sheep with bare backsides could provide an alternative to the controversial practice of 'mulesing' that has outraged global animal rights groups.
US animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has called for a worldwide boycott of Australian wool over mulesing, where folds of skin are cut away from a lamb's backside so that a bald area develops.
This prevents the potentially fatal disease flystrike, where blowfly maggots hatch and burrow into the skin.
But hope for an alternative to the painful and controversial practice of mulesing has arisen after the discovery of sheep with naturally wool-free behinds at the Calcookara Stud farm on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.
"We believe this will change the entire industry," says Peter Swan, genetics and wool quality program manager for Australian Wool Innovation (AWI).
"Contamination of the wool has been a large problem, so if we can breed this trait successfully it would stop the urine staining of wool. It will stop the flies and the need for mulesing," he says.
But Animal Liberation SA told the ABC it will take too long for a new bare-bum breed to have a widespread impact.
Out of 2000 Calcookara sheep, about 200 ewes have bare bums.
Swan says it seems the trait occurs naturally and that wool quality has not been affected.
Scientists from the University of Adelaide and the AWI used sperm and eggs from the bare-bum sheep to create embryos from which the first batch of lambs were born earlier this month.
"All of the ... sheep have been mulesed in the past. The key now is to see if we leave the progeny unmulesed, do they get flystrike or not?" Swan asks.
More than 90% of all flystrike is cased by the sheep blowfly Lucilla cuprina, which is attracted to accumulations of urine and faeces in the wool.
The flies then lay about 250 eggs in clusters in damp fleece around the backside, which hatch to release flesh-eating maggots that burrow into the skin.
Industry officials say chemical dipping is an alternative to mulesing to prevent flystrike but is less desirable because it is a short-term solution and can leave residues in wool.