Mulesing - History

History

Mulesing is named after John WH Mules, who developed the practice. While shearing a ewe which had suffered several flystrikes, Mules's hand slipped and his blade shears removed some skin from her hind end. After performing this procedure on his other sheep, Mules noticed that it prevented the occurrence of flystrike. The procedure was refined, experimented with, and demonstrated to reduce flystrike. It was approved for use in Australia in the 1930s. In Australia, it is thought that the fly primarily responsible for flystrike, Lucilia cuprina, was introduced from South Africa in the nineteenth century.

Originally, mulesing was carried out on sheep after they were weaned because it was considered "too rough" for lambs. However, lambs appear to cope with the procedure better than older sheep as the actual area of skin fold removed on young lambs is quite small, and they are protected for an extra year as well. For young lambs older than two months, the discomfort period seems to last for approximately two weeks by which time healing is almost, if not entirely, complete. Current codes of practice ban mulesing for sheep over 12 months of age.