{"id":993,"date":"2012-07-19T19:54:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T09:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=993"},"modified":"2012-07-26T19:57:30","modified_gmt":"2012-07-26T09:57:30","slug":"the-good-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=993","title":{"rendered":"The good oil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
A tea tree plantation in Coraki, NSW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nWhile researching the development of new products and markets for Australia\u2019s tea tree oil industry, scientists from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation found tea tree oil is an effective and environmentally benign treatment for fly strike and lice infestations in sheep.\r\n\r\nAlready widely recognised for its medicinal properties and use as an insect repellent for humans, the study\u2019s results suggest tea tree oil derived from Melaleuca alternifolia could also prove to be a commercially successful veterinary treatment for use in the sheep and wool industries.\r\n\r\nIn the team\u2019s laboratory trials, solutions containing one per cent tea tree oil consistently resulted in a 100 per cent kill rate of first stage maggots. There was also strong evidence to suggest the solution repelled adult flies, with no eggs being laid on the wool for up to six weeks.\r\n\r\nLead researcher Peter James from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation said the results were particularly encouraging.\r\n\r\n\u201cOur lab trials showed that a one per cent tea tree oil formulation reliably produced a 100 per cent kill rate of lice and lice eggs, but we were very pleased to see that our pen trials generated the same results,\u201d James said.\r\n\r\nShorn sheep used in the trials were inspected at two, six, 12, and 20 weeks after being dipped in the one per cent tea tree oil solution, but at no point were lice found in the wool. Animals with longer wool were also tested, using both one per cent, and two per cent solutions. In all cases results showed a significant reduction in louse numbers and wool damage in comparison to controls at two weeks after treatment.\r\n\r\n\u201cTea tree oil could be effective as a preventative treatment for wounds caused by mulesing, tail docking or any wound likely to be struck. It\u2019s also been shown to have antibacterial properties and is suggested to have wound healing effects,\u201d James said.\r\n\r\nThe composition of tea tree oil has been regulated under the International Organisation for Standardisation standard ISO 4730 (oil of Melaleuca-terpinen-4-ol type), and this recognised quality control helps to counter some of the criticism directed at natural pest controls not bound by the same regulations.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe appealing aspect of using tea tree oil as an insecticide is that it\u2019s a natural product. We\u2019re seeing more consumer demand for the use of naturally sourced products in food and fibre supply chains, but the use of many natural products on a commercial scale has often been hampered by its variable quality. Tea tree oil is very well placed in this regard as its composition is specified under an international standard. This ensures the supply of a consistent product, which is essential when using a product as an insecticide.\u201d\r\n\r\n<\/a> According to Dr James more research will be necessary to determine the exact formulation to make tea tree oil a viable treatment for fly strike and lice infestations. The process is: \u201can exact science, and not simply a matter of mixing tea tree oil with water and applying it to sheep\u201d.\r\n\r\nAnne Layton-Bennett<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe research findings are available in the RIRDC publication: \u2018Controlling fly strike and louse infections in sheep with tea tree oil\u2019 available here<\/a>.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While researching the development of new products and markets for Australia\u2019s tea tree oil industry, scientists from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation found tea tree oil is an effective and environmentally benign treatment for fly strike and lice infestations in sheep. Already widely recognised for its medicinal properties and use as an insect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[433,828,829,827,325,825,824,60,823,826,64],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-anne-layton-bennett","tag-composition","tag-iso-4730","tag-laboratory-trials","tag-maggots","tag-melaleuca","tag-rirdc","tag-sheep","tag-tea-tree","tag-tree","tag-wool"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":67,"name":"Features","slug":"features","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":68,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":63,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":67,"category_count":63,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Features","category_nicename":"features","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"While researching the development of new products and markets for Australia\u2019s tea tree oil industry, scientists from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation found tea tree oil is an effective and environmentally benign treatment for fly strike and lice infestations in sheep. Already widely recognised for its medicinal properties and use as an insect repellent for humans, the study\u2019s..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"67":{"name":"Features","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=67"}},"tags_names":{"433":{"name":"Anne Layton Bennett","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=anne-layton-bennett"},"828":{"name":"composition","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=composition"},"829":{"name":"ISO 4730","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=iso-4730"},"827":{"name":"laboratory trials","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=laboratory-trials"},"325":{"name":"maggots","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=maggots"},"825":{"name":"melaleuca","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=melaleuca"},"824":{"name":"RIRDC","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=rirdc"},"60":{"name":"sheep","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=sheep"},"823":{"name":"tea tree","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=tea-tree"},"826":{"name":"tree","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=tree"},"64":{"name":"wool","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=wool"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions\/996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}