AWI provides research and development update

The colour of their eyes affects their vision, and having white eyes would prevent them from being able to find sheep to lay their eggs on.

So this is why Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) is researching how it can edit the genome of a fly to change the colour of its eyes, and it’s had success.

In providing an update on its current projects at a Wool Week event recently, AWI research and development general manager Dr Jane Littlejohn said this technological advancement will provide countless research opportunities for the sheep and wool industry.

“We’ve been able to prove that this technology works, and now we can start editing whatever we want,” Dr Littlejohn said.

“It just opens things up for new vaccinations, new chemicals, and a world of investment.”

She said most of AWI’s current sheep health research projcets are related to fly strike, worm management, lice and biosecurity.

She said AWI has also been pushing the promotion of pain relief in mulesing.

“There’s some stats on the rate of change in the percentage of Merino lambs mulesed from 2014-2017, it’s gone from 73 to 70 per cent,” she said.

“And the percentage of Merino lambs being given pain relief has also increased.”

She said it’s been positive to see that while the pain relief costs producers money, it’s still being embraced and used on farm.

Reproduction, and in particular lamb survival, has also been an important research topic.

“We’ve done several tests on progeny, genetics, and ewe mob size for lambing density,” she said.

“We’re just trying to give us much advice to producers as we can to help them maximise the kilos they’re sending off their property.”

Wild dogs have also been on AWI’s agenda, with investment in community groups that work to control populations.

Online alert systems are continuing to be updated, including Wild Dog Alert, and a camera trap system that sends alerts to your phone.

One area that AWI is seeking support from woolgrowers in is its chemical resistance survey.

“Every three years we do a survey of all chemicals used on property, but with the drought, we’ve been a bit short on wool samples,” she said.

“It’s really important as it helps us update guidelines on how to use chemicals, so we can use them for as long as possible.”

In terms of marketing, AWI will continue its promotion of the natural fibre, and also push it to children with eczema, as well as bad sleepers.

“I was really surprised to see the prevalence of eczema in children under two years of age in Australia is 20pc, and it’s got similar stats across the globe,” she said.

“Wool is really good for skin health, it’s all about managing that moisture, so this is a massive market for us.”

She said wool has also proven to help with fragmented sleep.

“We did some tests in a sleep lab, and put people under quite extreme conditions where all they were wearing was wool, and it showed that it really helped people get to sleep faster,” she said.

She said they will continue to push the benefits of the natural fibre.

“We’ve done a major study into microfibres and microplastics and the potential human health impacts that come out of wearing synthetics,” she said.

“And you might see some ads popping up soon of sheep wearing plastic, creating the link in people’s minds that they’re wearing something artificial and it’s not good for you or the environment.”