2007 News
Results in: Clips given thumbs up
29 November 2007
The plastic clips developed by Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) as an alternative to mulesing have recently been given the thumbs up in an animal welfare study.
The two year study was carried out by the University of Melbourne’s Professor Paul Hemsworth, who is also director of the Animal Welfare Science Centre.
“The Centre has conducted two separate studies of mulesed, clipped and no-treatment lambs; the first focused on the behavioural responses and the second study focused on behavioural, physiological and fitness effects to examine the biological functioning of the lambs,” Professor Hemsworth said.
The main finding of the study was that the clips have only a mild impact on the biology of the lambs, and thus have only a relatively minor risk to animal welfare.
“Under appropriate and scientifically-accepted methodology, we assessed the behavioural and physiological responses as well as fitness effects, such as growth and health to gain an insight to the welfare aspects of the clips.”
Professor Hemsworth and the Animal Welfare Science Centre focus much of their work on the behaviour and welfare of farm animals. A large portion of this work involves analysing the effect of the social and physical environment on animal behaviour and welfare, and the influence of human-animal interaction on welfare and productivity.
In further positive news, AWI’s Project Manager for Blowfly Control, Ian Evans, says that ongoing on-farm evaluations show the clips are working towards achieving a similar net effect to that of conventional surgical mulesing for control of breech fly-strike across a range of production areas, sheep types and farm operations.
The breech and tail clips have so far been applied to lambs on over 150 properties across Australia as AWI continues its product development and testing program.
For more information, please visit www.wool.com.au