20/10/2025
Recently, I was asked to proof read a paper on facial wool coverage of sheep. I suspect alpaca breeders might be interested with the on-going findings regarding this trait.
High facial coverage of fibre was obviously linked to fibre blindness as well as seed infestation of eyes. It was also found to be correlated to low fertility, with this correlation unrelated to the blindness.
The trait was found to be highlty heritable, but interestingly, not highly correlated to fleece weight. In other words, it was possible to breed for low facial coverage without impacting the amount of fleece produced.
I know that some alpacas have considerable facial coverage while others do not. I am therefore wondering, for the sake of animal welfare, that reduced facial fibre coverage might be something that alpaca breeders could breed for, perhaps after some trials are conducted. Perhaps some breeders do this anyway??
Paul Vallely.
(As a postscript, given the interest this post seems to have attracted, I did a quick desk-top review of papers on face coverage of sheep with referencing. The results are contained in my (lengthy) comment below)
