THE chemical mulesing treatment Skin Traction still requires considerable fine-tuning before it can be released.
AWI head of sheep technologies Geoff Lindon said even if the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority signed off on the method, more work was needed before it could become commercial.
Skin Traction, being developed as an alternative to surgical mulesing, works by delivering a measured dose of sodium lauryl sulphate into the skin of the breech of a weaner lamb without using a needle.
The treated skin dies and forms a scab, which falls off to leave stretched skin, free of wrinkles, and therefore less susceptible to flystrike.
Development of Skin Traction by Cobbett Technologies began four years ago.
The technology, including its formulation, is in the final stages of regulatory approval by the APVMA. Extensive field trials supported by AWI are still going on.
In the past financial year, AWI invested $620,000 from its on-farm flystrike research funds to on-farm trials.
Cobbett hopes to keep the cost of treatment to less than $1.50 a lamb to match current combined cost of surgical mulesing and pain relief.
But unlike surgical mulesing, which is traditionally done at marking when lambs are six to 10 weeks, field trials suggest that a Skin Traction treatment is best done at weaning or later.
Mr Lindon said the best results were for lambs at six to 12 months, preferably immediately after crutching or shearing.
Mr Lindon said the trials had also found lambs that had been off water gave a less satisfactory result than those on water. Weather also played a role.
The trials found it was better to treat lambs in mild weather than on a cold, wet day.
Mr Lindon said more work was needed before use recommendations were applied to a label.
