At the annual general meeting of Australian Wool Innovation in Perth today, a new broom was put through the leadership of the industry's research and marketing body, with the result heavily based on the future of mulesing.

• Voted onto the AWI board:

  Laurence Modiano 199,273 votes

  Meredith Sheil 189,892 votes

  Brian van Rooyen 185,006 votes

  George Falkiner 174,811 votes

  David Webster 179, 589 votes

• Unsuccessful candidates

  Will Roberts 169,717 votes

  John Keniry 162,519 votes

  Robyn Clubb 158,664 votes

  Ken Boundy 157,957 votes

  Chris Abell 155,050 votes

Mulesing is the controversial practice of removing skin from around the backside of young Merino sheep to keep them from being eaten alive by blowfly maggots.

It has been widely used since the 1950s as a highly effective method of protecting sheep from blowfly strike but animal rights groups have attacked the industry over the practice since 2004.

AWI chairman Brian van Rooyen was re-elected to the board and told the meeting growers did not have to adhere to the mulesing phase out but said the world's retailers, who had been threatened by animal rights groups, expected it.

"Retailers are not prepared to fight the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) at their front doors over the mulesing issue," he said.

PETA bought the mulesing issue to the world's attention back in 2004 when it drew high profile retailers such as Abercrombie and Fitch into a boycott of Australian wool.

But AWI has struggled to find a truly viable alternative, with most growers continuing to mules their animals with the aid of pain relief.

The inventor of that pain relief product, known as Tri-Solfen, is now a newly elected AWI director.

The product was licensed to Bayer Animal Health in 2006.