World-first technology to allow Australian sheep producers to safely deliver fast and effective pain relief to lambs during the castration and tail docking process is on track to be available to industry by mid-2019.
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Numnuts is the result of a partnership between Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and Scottish product design and engineering firm 4c Design, to drive improvements in animal husbandry practices and animal welfare outcomes.
Numnuts founder Robin Smith said the lamb industry was responding to the growing interest from consumers and retailers in the husbandry of animals and the need for an improved marking tool.
The Numnuts tool incorporates a single action handheld device that dispenses a rubber ring and injects local anaesthetic to alleviate pain when lambs are castrated and tail-docked, known together as ‘marking’.
The technology has been licensed to Senesino for delivery to the Australian sheep industry with a pilot launch set for 2019.
Lead researcher from CSIRO, Dr Alison Small, said extensive animal trials of Numnuts in Australia had produced positive results.
“Detailed research studies have been carried out at the CSIRO Chiswick field station (at Armidale), and in addition, commercial trials were carried out for both Merinos and crossbreds on five commercial farms in Australia during the 2018 marking season,” Dr Small said.
“There was a significant reduction in pain–related behaviours such as the ‘tucked up’ posture, bleating and lying down when sheep were treated using the Numnuts tool, as compared with just having rubber rings applied,” she said.
Mr Smith said more than 15,000 lambs have been given pain relief at marking time using Numnuts, and it had been scientifically proven to reduce the acute pain spike of tail docking and castration by up to 65 per cent.
“Animal behavioural science studies investigated the response and effectiveness of our system in field trials by CSIRO in Australia and in pen trials by Moredun Research Institute in Scotland,” Mr Smith said.
“The scientists used ethograms that have been developed by vets and animal behavioural specialist over three decades to validate the effectiveness of the Numnuts prototype tool,” he said.
Mr Smith said it was anticipated the Numnuts device would cost about $200, and the cost per procedure to be about 65 cents.
“So, assuming equal numbers of male and females and that the procedure will be done on both tails and scrotums, it works out close to $1 per lamb,” Mr Smith said.
Senesino hopes to make Numnuts available to about 500 sheep producers and others for a pilot launch in mid-2019.
