But AWI has dismissed the attack as a political manoeuvre to undermine AWI's attempts to provide a solution to the mulesing dilemma.

AWGA says it will write to the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, seeking clarification of Australian Wool Innovation's (AWI) recent public claims about new "painless" mulesing alternatives known as a "silver bullet".

An AWI media release on September 8 stated: "The new technologies designed to combat flystrike in Merino lambs are painless and leave no open wound."

At the time AWI chairman, Brian van Rooyen, said that in both cases the area treated sufficiently enlarges the bare breech area and also removes the breech wrinkle of the Merino genotypes which have been tested so far.

But AWGA claims a "bombshell was dropped" at the AWI Roadshow meetings in South Australia last week when AWI director, Dr Chris Abell, stated the research on these "silver bullet" technologies had been conducted on dead sheep.

"How can AWI make claims that the new mulesing alternative is painless and leaves no open wound if it has only been tested on dead sheep, indeed, even that it works?" AWGA chairman Martin Oppenheimer said in a media statement today.

He argues public claims such as this go against the Australian Code for The Responsible Conduct of Research, which outlines that discussion of findings should not occur in the public arena until the findings have been tested through independent peer review.

Mr Oppenheimer said it was also against the code to release results publicly before informing all interested parties, but he said this had also occurred as several members of the AWI Board were unaware that the trials had even taken place.

But AWI chairman Brian van Rooyen said he was disappointed that AWGA was undermining woolgrowers’ investment in the potential mulesing solutions offered by FSP-1 and FSP-2.