Abstract
IT has been known in medicine since 1898 that thallium compounds taken internally will cause loss of the hair. This method has recently been used to produce moulting of the fleece in sheep, instead of shearing. Prof. N. A. Iljin (J. Genet., 33, No. 2) gives a short account of experiments in which the sheep's fleece becomes loose a few days after treatment and can be removed whole with the hands in a few minutes. Sheep with coarse and mixed wool have a natural annual moult which is absent from fine-woolled breeds such as the merino. Hybrids are found to exhibit segregation of this character of natural moulting. By thallium treatment, the moult may be induced in merinos and their naturally non-moulting hybrids. Extensive experiments with this method have been carried out on Soviet State Farms in the Crimea, Ukraine, Caucasus and the Moscow district, but as a considerable number of sheep were killed by an overdose during the experiments, it is evident that the effects of repeated doses on the animal will need to be known before the treatment can come into practical use.
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Artificial Thallium Moult in Sheep. Nature 139, 104 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139104b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139104b0