Mulesing (also known as 'live lamb cutting') is the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech (buttocks) of a sheep to prevent the parasitic infection flystrike (myiasis).
However, in the absence of more humane alternatives for preventing breech strike, the AVA accepts that the practice of mulesing should continue as a sheep husbandry procedure".
[4] The Australian Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals accepts mulesing when the risk of flystrike is very high, when it is done properly, and even then only as a last resort.
[7] Sheep after mulesing are noted to have markedly elevated levels of the hormones cortisol and β-endorphin,[a] respectively associated with stress and pain.
[8] In July 2009, representatives of the Australian wool industry scrapped an earlier promise, made in November 2004, to phase out the practice of mulesing in Australia by 31 December 2010.
This lucrative trait often meant that the thick, wrinkled wool on the sheep's rear readily attracted and held dirt and feces.
The ewe had suffered from flystrike before and Mules carefully watched her progress in case she developed another infestation in the wound he had accidentally caused.
[13] During this operation small strips of skin are peeled from a sheep's buttock using steel shears on either side of the anus and underside of the tail.
As of 2006[update], CSIRO's (an Australian-based international organisation) codes of practice ban mulesing for sheep over 12 months of age.
The success of animal rights movements in agitating for the procedure's curtailment has brought the proportion of Australian sheep ranchers who practice mulesing down to around 70%.
[1] While the lamb is under restraint (typically in a marking cradle), the wrinkled skin in the animal's breech (rump area) is cut away from the perianal region down to the top of the hindlimbs.
[19] After a heavy mules, non-wooled skin around the anus (and vulva in ewes) is pulled tight, the cut heals and results in smooth scar tissue that does not get fouled by faeces or urine.
Lambs that are slaughtered soon after weaning generally do not need mulesing because they can be protected by chemical treatment for the short time they are at risk.
In October 2004, American fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. responded to pressure from PETA to boycott Australian Merino wool due in part to the use of mulesing in Australia.
PETA's campaign has hurt the Australian wool industry with several American and European clothing retailers agreeing to the boycott.
[citation needed] Since then, the Swedish Agriculture Minister, Eskil Erlandsson, has said that "he was satisfied that Australia appeared to be responding to international concerns about mulesing and that bans or boycotts were not necessary".
[40] During steining a set of clamping jaws designed by Steinfort is used to pinch up rolls of skin near the tail and anus of a lamb.
The goal is to achieve the level of cellular injury that prevents future hair growth but not so much that a 3rd degree cold burn is created.
Pinching the skin is thought to mitigate the degree of the cold burn by removing it somewhat from the muscles and connective tissue beneath.
Studies show this method is at least as good at preventing flystrike as mulesing and carries few long-term consequences for the lamb's later growth and wool production.
[41] They argue that affected nerve endings are immediately numbed and that sensation does not return during healing, when a scab forms and is eventually sloughed in 6 to 8 weeks.
[42] In 2020 a University of Melbourne researcher named Ellen Jongman was commissioned to study the issue by the company Steinfort formed to commercialize his technique, SteinfortAgVet.
They believe "any painful procedure to change the breech area should only be considered an interim, short-term solution that accompanies a breeding program that focusses on flystrike resistance, and is carried out only where absolutely necessary to manage at-risk sheep.
"[46] Merino sheep bred on selection principles may be more resistant to flystrike because they are plain bodied (lower skin wrinkling around the breech).
[47] The resistance of plain-bodied Merino sheep to flystrike arose from field investigations by Australian scientists, Drs H. R. Seddon and H. B. Belschner, in the early 1930s.