Australia : Scientists Working Out To Introduce Low Shrinkage Wool

Scientists are working out to provide a solution to prevent woollen garments from shrinking in the wash.

Now the pricey woollen outfits wrecked after a quick wash could become a thing of the past, with news that sheep can be bred to produce a new quality coat.

Researchers at the CSIRO in Perth say they have found a genetic link in sheep that have wool resistant to shrinking.

Scientists say sheep can be bred to produce wool which is less prone to shrinkage when washed.

Wool shrinkage, known as felting, is a trait sheep inherit.

It can now be manipulated via selective sheep breeding.

The discovery that felting is inherited by sheep should allow wool growers to identify and select sheep which naturally produce low-shrinkage wool, CSIRO scientist Tony Schlink said.

Dr Schlink and Western Australia's Department of Agriculture geneticist Dr Johan Greeff put more than 2,000 wool samples from Katanning Merino resource flocks into the wash.

They performed feltball density tests, putting one gram of clean, hand-carded wool in a container with water and placed the container in a front-loading tumble drier at 20 degrees for 30 minutes.

"The samples come out as a nice round ball - the smaller the ball, the greater the felting," Dr Schlink said.

They assessed the wool's likelihood of inheriting felting by using pedigree information.

"Altering the ability of wool to felt through conventional breeding may make a considerable contribution to wool processing," Dr Schlink said.

CSIRO studies show knitted fabric made from low-felting wool have reduced pilling and shrinkage.

Low-felting wool produces longer length and less entanglement during the scouring process, resulting in fewer breakages during spinning, the studies show.

Dr Schlink said the amount of chemicals used on wool to prevent shrinkage could also be cut.

"Breeding offers the potential to eventually produce wool that does not need to be chemically treated to achieve desirable fabric characteristics," he said.

In a separate study with University of Western Australia Honours student Melanie Ladyman, the wool's ability to hold dust was also found to be an inherited trait.

"Some sheep are more susceptible to dust content in their wool than others," Dr Schlink said.

"As with felting, woolgrowers in areas where dust is a problem can breed sheep with a stronger resistance to dust content."