SIGHTINGS


 
Science Creating
Self-Shearing Sheep -
What's Next?
By Michael Byrnes
7-31-98

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - Australia's legendary sheep shearers may soon be replaced by the latest creation of scientists -- self-shearing sheep. A product being brought to the market this year will use biotechnology to transform the age-old process of manual shearing, its backers say. Called Bioclip, it injects sheep with a naturally occurring protein that causes their fleece to drop out, or be brushed out by hand, a week later. The vast outback shearing sheds are still buzzing, but Australia's $2 billion wool industry is struggling and anything that can save money is welcome. ``Any innovation we would support,'' said Greg Evans, executive director of grower group Wool Council of Australia. Australian shearers have progressed beyond the romantic late 1800s image of bush poets and Hollywood film makers who portrayed them as tough, independent souls. Now they are a major cost factor in an industry where a 40-percent drop in wool prices since 1990 has pushed many growers to the brink of financial disaster. ``Without a doubt wool harvesting is a major cost to the industry and the extent any innovation can reduce (costs) we would welcome,'' Evans said. Australian shearers are paid 90 cents per sheep, typically processing about 120 sheep a day at an average of three to four minutes per sheep. Shearing also requires shed staff to clear shorn wool, classers to grade the fleece and cooks for meals. The firm that will market the new process, Bioclip, is not revealing how much it will charge, whether gathering the wool will be quicker than shearing or other details. Managing Director John Le Breton would not even say who owns the firm.
 
SCIENCE TRANSFORMING FARMS
 
But the main players in Australia's wool industry describe Bioclip, based on a process developed by scientists at the government-owned Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, as a world first. ``(It) introduces a totally new concept in wool harvesting to an industry which has been using mechanical techniques for more than 5,000 years,'' CSIRO, the Woolmark Company and Australia's Minister for Industry, Science and Tourism John Moore said in a joint statement. The injected protein -- neither Bioclip nor the CSIRO will give its scientific name -- causes a break in fleece fibers, shedding the wool into nets and special coats strapped to the sheep. The fiber break follows a slowdown in cell activity for a brief period after the injection that slows wool growth. After a week, the fleece simply falls out or can be removedby brushing by hand -- ``a very neat little process,'' said CSIRO spokeswoman Pat Wilson. Gene technology is not involved. Neil Evans, technical director of Australia's Woolmark Company, the former International Wool Secretariat, sees Bioclip becoming a significant method of removing wool from sheep in the next five to 10 years. It improves quality through producing wool of more uniform length than shearing and reduces use of pest-control chemicals by causing sheep skin to shed lice and to reduce dermatitis.
 
SHEEP STRESS REDUCED
 
The process also eliminates or reduces other problems of mechanical shearing including second-cuts, or second attempts by a shearer to fleece the sheep, skin pieces that end up in the shorn wool and wool waste that falls away during combing.And it reduces sheep stress and injury, Bioclip says. The process has been tested on more than 15,000 sheep over 20 years including a flock in Yass, in New South Wales state, that has been treated annually for the past seven years. ``Revolutionary processes do not happen overnight,'' CSIRO's Wilson said. Monitoring shows that the injection elevates the protein in the sheep for 24 hours, after which wool begins to grow again. Sheep can be sold for meat seven days later, the CSIRO said. Australia's gene technology and animal rights watchdogs are keeping an eye on the process but have made no objections yet. Australia's wool industry has been trying to reduce its reliance on shearers since long before Bioclip, mainly through mechanization aimed at minimizing ``shearers tossing sheep around,'' Greg Evans said. But it is unlikely that shearers will be out of a job -- even if some are transformed into modern-day pluckers. Farmers wanted Bioclip initially only for the top 15 percent of their flocks, where best prices can be obtained from the better finish the protein process produces, Wilson said. Shearers would also have a major part to play through pre-injection trimming of peripheral areas of sheep, which produce hair rather than wool. They could also be used in harvest teams of three to five people without the occupational health and safety issues of normal shearing, Wilson said. The Australian Workers' Union has yet to come to grips with Bioclip, although a top official said the union would resist any move to cut job numbers. ``Anything that takes away from shearers' jobs, we wouldn't be very happy about,'' AWU officer Lauren Godfrey said.





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