SYDNEY: Black sheep may exist only in nursery rhymes if Australian scientists succeed in coming up with a way of detecting which animals carry the gene that results in black or piebald lambs.

Researcher Belinda Norris said on Wednesday that farmers were keen to see the government-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) develop a test for the gene.

Flecked fleeces are sold off cheap and account for around three per cent of the annual clip.

“It’s a major problem that costs farmers in terms of having to cull sheep, affecting their wool clip and production,” Norris told Australia’s AAP news agency.

White sheep can carry what is known as the recessive self-colour black gene. When a ram and a sheep both with the gene mate, they can produce lambs that are black or piebald.

Farmers already cull females that test positive for the black gene, but in males this is harder to detect.

A genetic test could be only three or four years away, Norris said. “Such tests would be relatively inexpensive and could be used for routine screening, especially in ram breeders’ flocks, to eliminate the problem in the industry.”—dpa