Abstract

Fleece rot is a bacterial exudative dermatitis in sheep (Burrell, 1988) which occurs when the skin has been con-tinuously wet for 4 - 9 days. It is a major predisposing factor to the incidence of bodystrike - a form of flystrike -with a high genetic correlation of 0.9 (Atkins and McGuirk, 1979). This trial investigated the possibility of using fleece colour characteristics to predict the incidence of fleece rot in sheep.

A-M, Keown, and TC Reid

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 57, , 83, 1997