Agriculture officials have approved a health standard for the import of semen from the world's biggest wild sheep species.
Two Wairarapa farmers want to use the semen to produce huge hybrid animals for New Zealand farms.
Andrew and Hazel Frontin-Rollet have predicted that the sheep will be able to produce male lambs
that grow to between 40kg and 45kg in just 25 weeks.
The couple's farming company, Diverse Agricultural Holdings, has already bred water buffalo, and previously investigated importing musk bears and European bison.
The argali sheep they are now targeting is the world's largest species of wild sheep. It can grow to 180kg, measure 2m long and 120 cm high at the shoulder.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has issued an import health standard for the semen of a specific argali ram in the Singapore Zoo.
MAF has already allowed the import of semen, blood and tissue to be held in storage until the import health standards can be drawn up and import permits obtained.
The ministry requires the first progeny from the semen to be quarantined for five years and then slaughtered to be checked for scrapie.
All three batches of semen will be checked for chlamydia, mycoplasma and other infections.
MAF said that although two submissions on the proposed import standard raised environmental concerns, this was not MAF's responsibility. But a biosecurity clearance for the progeny from the semen would not be given without approval from the Environmental Risk Management Authority, which oversees new organisms.
Argali sheep are found in Central Asia, Russia and China. There are several subspecies, including altai sheep, marco polo's sheep and tibetan sheep. The Frontin-Rollet operation is based on the marco polo subspecies.
Adult males can carry two enormous corkscrew-like horns measuring 190cm along their spiral, and are highly prized by wealthy hunters. But Mr Frontin-Rollet has said the couple want the animals for their meat characteristics.
They have also been investigating another, "commercially sensitive" innovative use for the sheep.
Researchers at Utah State University have tried to clone argali sheep in an effort to perfect techniques for saving endangered species.
- NZPA
