BRITAIN'S leading fashion retailers are threatening to boycott Australian wool after farmers said they would keep mulesing sheep.

Next and Marks & Spencer are among major chains to condemn the decision as "totally unacceptable" and pledged to seek wool from non-mulesed Australian farms, or from other countries, UK papers reported yesterday.

Marks & Spencer pledged to use non-mulesed merino wool for its men's suits after 2010.

In a letter to Australian wool industry leaders, the retailer is said to have stressed the "2010 deadline is not negotiable and loss of confidence in M&S wool products could well lead to widespread customer boycotting and loss of revenue for the whole supply chain", the newspaper said.

The British Retail Consortium was "disappointed" by last month's statement and members "will seek to use suppliers who don't use mulesing" next year.

"Next has expressed a preference for using non-mulesed and non-clip mulesed merino wool," a spokeswoman for the retailer said.

Animal rights activists have long campaigned against mulesing, the practice of cutting a slice of flesh from a sheep's rump to stop the animal dying of flystrike.

Farmers had agreed to stop mulesing in 2010, but in July said they had not found a better way to stop the fly maggot infestations.

Wool body Australian Wool Innovation said the decision was based on scientific advice.

Australia is the world's largest wool producer.

Originally published as New threat over sheep mulesing