2005 News

Research looks to genetics for mulesing solution

13/10/2005

Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI) has today launched a $2 million five-year research project to determine if selective breeding programs can produce breech blowfly-strike resistant sheep.

AWI is funding the project with research to be undertaken by Department of Agriculture Western Australia (DAWA) and CSIRO Livestock Industries.

AWI Wool Production General Manager Ian Rogan said the project was part of the company’s comprehensive push to find alternatives to mulesing, in line with the sheep industry’s commitment to phase out mulesing by 2010.

"AWI is exploring all avenues of research to find alternatives to mulesing and better solutions to breech flystrike prevention and control," he said.

"We expect that at least one alternative to mulesing should be available as early as 2007 but we are pushing ahead with a range of options for producers - this project however is a longer term measure for producers."

"This project aims to clearly establish the degree of resistance that can be bred through selection, the impact on other traits and the most efficient ways to breed such sheep."

The project will involve intensive, long-term monitoring of two flocks of six hundred breeding ewes, one in winter-rainfall Mt Barker, WA and the other in summer-rainfall Armidale in NSW.

DAWA researchers Dr Johan Greeff and John Karlsson said while they believed it was possible to breed sheep less susceptible to breech flystrike, there was little hard information available.

"How quickly we can breed sheep less susceptible to flystrike, how effective it is and what impact it has on other production traits is unknown, especially over a range of environments," Dr Greeff said.

"Differences in the incidence of breech strike, wool production and the cost of production will be evaluated for both the resistant and control lines at each site. Additional traits such as fertility, growth rate, survival rate and ease of shearing will also be assessed."

CSIRO Livestock Industries research scientist Dr Andrew Swan said each flock would comprise three mobs including one control mob and two selected for breech strike resistance, with half the lambs from each mob mulesed and the other half not mulesed.

"In addition to recording flystrike incidence and the impact on production traits, the project’s five year span should also enable us to record any seasonal variations in the incidence of breech strike," Dr Swan said.

Individual producers across Australia have previously looked to breed sheep less susceptible to breech strike and selected sheep genetics from these flocks may be included in the trials.