ABC Home | Radio | Television | News | Your Local ABC | More Subjects… | Shop

Email

Mulesing soon a past practice: wool industry

Posted July 17, 2008 09:15:00

The wool industry says the practice of mulesing sheep could be abandoned by the end of next year.

Mulesing involves removing skin from sheeps' backsides, to help prevent fly strike.

The wool industry has agreed to phase out the practice.

Ian Evans from Australian Wool Innovation says there have been successful trials of clips which restricts bloodflow to the sheeps' backsides, preventing them becoming flyblown.

Mr Evans says the clips are more humane than mulesing.

"It's a bit like, you see animals shaking their head when the flies hang around them," he said.

"It's because they have got something hanging off them that they haven't previously had, so i would describe it as annoyance, rather than severe pain."

Tags: rural, agricultural-crops, wool, livestock, animal-welfare, sheep-production, nsw, bega-2550, orange-2800, tamworth-2340, wagga-wagga-2650, qld, longreach-4730, mount-isa-4825, vic, ballarat-3350, horsham-3400, mildura-3500, wodonga-3690, geraldton-6530

Feature

Cliffs at Elliston

Old rocks

Even to palaeontologists, 500 million years is not just the blink of an eye.

Feature

Commuters crowd a subway train station in Beijing

Longer lifespan

A new United Nations report says Chinese people are living longer than ever before.

Listen

Mitchell Johnson celebrates a wicket

First Test

Australia's Mitchell Johnson speaks to Grandstand after taking four wickets against New Zealand.