Chronic arterial cannulation for studying the skin of sheep

Cutaneous branches of intercostal, external thoracic and deep circumflex iliac arteries in a total of 77 sheep were cannulated using one of two methods described. These cutaneous preparations, supplying areas of wool-growing skin from 30 to 400 cm2, remained patent for up to six weeks as determined by dye infusion. Wool was readily plucked by hand from preparations infused with either 12 mg betamethasone for eight days or 1.2 g mimosine for two days thereby demonstrating that normal defleecing responses can be elicited in animals bearing isolated cutaneous preparations.