Editing Mulesing (section)

==Background==
The [[Lucilia cuprina|Australian sheep blow fly]] (in fact an [[invasive species]] from [[South Africa]]) afflicts many sheep in Australia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dorrain |first=Jules |date=2006-06-03 |title=Battling the blowfly – plan for the future |url=http://www.wool.com.au/mediaLibrary/attachments/Publications/insight_Blowfly_211106.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907064910/http://www.wool.com.au/mediaLibrary/attachments/Publications/insight_Blowfly_211106.pdf |archive-date=2008-09-07  |access-date=2022-09-13 |publisher=Australian Wool Innovation |isbn=1-920908-21-8}}</ref> In the late 19th century Merino sheep in Australia were crossbred with loose-skinned Merino sheep from [[Vermont]]. This resulted in such a productive fleece that it formed wrinkles on the animal. The popularity of Merino wool in the 20th century led Australian sheep breeders to continue selecting for the thickest possible fleeces on their sheep. This lucrative trait often meant that the thick, wrinkled wool on the sheep's rear readily attracted and held dirt and feces. This collection of unsanitary material as well as the skin ulcers it sometimes caused are very attractive to gravid female blowflies. Female blow flies seek out sheep with wounds and soiled wool to lay their eggs. Once the maggots hatch they gravitate to open wounds if any are present. This is ''flystrike'', a type of [[myiasis]]. Flystrike, also called ''breechstrike'', often leads to systemic secondary infections and death.  

In the early 1930s an Australian grazier named John Mules<!--Q129965730--> was [[Sheep shearing|shearing]] a ewe when he accidentally cut off a small patch of skin near the ewe's breech (buttocks). 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. To Mules' surprise, once the wound healed it replaced tangled and dirty breech wool with smooth scar tissue. Blowflies were no longer attracted to this area on the ewe as it could not collect dirt or feces. No relapse of flystrike occurred. Mules and others soon developed this into a technique now known as mulesing.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dorrain |first=Jules |date=2006-06-03 |title=Battling the blowfly – plan for the future |url=http://www.wool.com.au/mediaLibrary/attachments/Publications/insight_Blowfly_211106.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907064910/http://www.wool.com.au/mediaLibrary/attachments/Publications/insight_Blowfly_211106.pdf |archive-date=2008-09-07  |access-date=2022-09-13 |publisher=Australian Wool Innovation |isbn=1-920908-21-8}}</ref>

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. This was formerly performed on mature sheep but it was later found that lambs recover more quickly and completely than older animals. For lambs older than two months the period of greatest discomfort seems to last for approximately two weeks, by which time healing is almost complete. {{as of|2006}}, CSIRO's (an Australian-based international organisation) codes of practice ban mulesing for sheep over 12 months of age.<ref name="Model Code" />

Mulesing reduces the likelihood of flystrike by about 13 times.<ref name=":1"/> The practice became nearly universal during the 20th century. The success of animal rights movements in agitating for the procedure's curtailment has brought the proportion of Australian sheep graziers who practice mulesing down to around 70%. Successful international boycotts of Australian Merino wool in the early 2000s set those invested in Australian sheep rearing on the hunt for alternatives.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004-10-15 |title=Farmers ridicule US wool ban |url=https://www.theage.com.au/world/farmers-ridicule-us-wool-ban-20041016-gdyt3p.html |access-date=2022-09-13 |website=The Age |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-01-06 |title=PETA claims another retailer joins wool boycott - National Rural News - Wool - General - Stock & Land |url=http://sl.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/wool/general/peta-claims-another-retailer-joins-wool-boycott/1388691.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106062628/http://sl.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/wool/general/peta-claims-another-retailer-joins-wool-boycott/1388691.aspx |archive-date=2009-01-06  |access-date=2022-09-13 }}</ref> The publicity generated intense interest in finding a replacement for mulesing that domestic and international consumers will accept.