Mulesn.
/mjuːlz/, U.S. /mjulz/, Australian English /mjuːlz/ Chiefly Australian.
attributive and in the genitive. Designating or relating to an operation to reduce the incidence of blowfly strike in sheep by removing folds of skin from the crotch, which is the area most likely to be affected.
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the world > health and disease > healing > veterinary medicine and surgery > [noun] > veterinary procedures > treatments of sheep
sheep-smearing1824
footrotting1851
Mules1932
mulesing1946
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > sheep-farming > [noun] > Mules' operation
Mules1932
mulesing1946
1932 Jrnl. Dept. Agric. S. Austral. Aug. 115 (title) Blowfly strike in sheep and the ‘Mules’ operation for reducing the incidence.
1933 Sci. Bull. Council Sci. & Industr. Res. (Austral.) No. 40. 103 By careful surgical procedure on the Mules principle, liability to strike should be reduced considerably.
1957 New Biol. 22 101 This experiment showed clearly that the Mules operation gave good protection against crutch strike in wrinkly breeched sheep.
1994 Austral. Vet. Jrnl. 71 243 9- to 10-month-old castrated male Merino sheep..treated by either the modified Mules operation or by topical application of a quaternary ammonium compound to achieve non-surgical mulesing.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
mulesv.
/mjuːlz/, U.S. /mjulz/, Australian English /mjuːlz/ Chiefly Australian.
intransitive and transitive. To perform a Mules operation (on).
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1985 Western Farmer (Perth) 17 Oct. 29/2 They would rather mules than have the following tragedy of fly blown sheep.
1986 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 5 Nov. 26/1 A lamb is mulesed by cutting off a strip of skin from tail to back legs.
1989 Appl. Animal Behaviour Sci. 22 283 Ten animals were mulesed and compared with 10 which were handled in the same way except for mulesing.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1932
v.1985