THE nation’s leading researcher into surgical mulesing alternatives has warned of hold ups in the commercial release of its new needless intradermal “Skintraction” technology in the absence of an approval from the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicine Authority (APVMA).
Australian Wool Innovation’s head sheep technologies and special projects manager Geoff Lindon said Merino producers looking to switch from surgical mulesing to its new skintraction technology would have to wait until the advisory body gave it the green light that the chemical Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) it contained would not be harmful for human consumption and the animals being injected with it did not suffer.
In studies made on SLS – an active ingredient in varicose vein treatments for humans - unreacted SLS is found to be metabolised by the liver and more than 90 per cent is excreted in the urine eight hours after treatment.
Speaking at a Merino expo at Dookie college on Tuesday Mr Lindon side stepped questions about a release date and Skintractions’ success at preventing flystrike, instead responding that a release could be “late 2010 or 2011” and results were “encouraging but not as good as mulesing to date”.
His comments come as the 2008/09 release date made by the licensee behind Skintraction, Cobbett Technologies research and development director, Peter St. Vincent Welch made in August 2007, has passed.
Skintraction uses sodium SLS to reduce wrinkle and increase the bare area around the breech and tail of sheep.
Throughout Mr Lindon’s 30 minute presentation he re-affirmed that the two-year Skintraction work remained in a trial phase, and even though results were encouraging so had the now “rolled over” intradermal technology using chemical Centrimide and Carproven.
“Skintraction is looking promising bit it must be remembered at the two year stage centrimide looked promising.”
According to AWI's annual report, in 2008-2009 it invested $555,445 in the Cobbett Technologies intradermal.
Alternating the applicator guns tip length and number have been trialled in the 1500 lambs in a 2009 trial.
Despite the potential that APVMA could knock back the technology, Mr Lindon said the technology would be “comparatively” priced with surgical mulesing and listed the price of the kit at $7000.
This price contradicts claims by Mr St Vincent Welch that the kit would be priced at $3000 to $4000.
“I think the technology has got some potential but price is my concern,” said wool producer Stuart Fox, Fox Pastoral, Merton.
In response to how AWI could suggest Skintraction would be comparable in price to surgical mulesing, Mr Lindon said the United States company Pulse – which made the units – had agreed to lease them to Australian contractors at the $7000 rate.
The Skintraction dialogue comes as results from the North East Merino groups bare breech trial uncovered promising results for breeding plain bodied sheep that were less susceptible to flystrike.
The study, involving 600 ewes that were inseminated with one of 12 Merino sires results mirrored conclusions found in bare breech trials at Kalkoora, Western Australia and Sheep CRC that wrinkle and bare breech were not genetically correlated.
“What we are recommending, and this is consistent with Sheep CRC work, is that bare breech is a catch cry and it is more important to concentrate on wrinkle reduction,” Central test sire evaluation chairperson Phil Toland said.
Mr Toland said producers looking for a genetic alternative to fly strike control should consider bare breech as a bonus.
“There is no use having bare breech and wrinkle - it negates itself."
Mr Toland said the second stage of the trial was examining the impact bare breech had on wool cut.
Results from the Calcookara Stud trial, revealed by Sheep Genetics manager Sam Gill, demonstrated that the fleece from the famed bare breech ram Kojac was lower in fleece weight compared with other rams in the trial, but had a higher skirted fleece weight.
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