Rumen Impaction: Retrospective study on the prevalence, clinical findings, gross pathology and causes in sheep and goat reared in the tropical rain forest of Nigeria

In the present study, the prevalence, clinical manifestation, pathology and causes of rumen impaction in sheep and goats were determined from 6 years postmortem records, of the Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, for proper management of the condition. The prevalence was calculated as percentage of occurrence of rumen impaction among cases presented for postmortem examination; as overall, annual, age and sex-specific. The overall prevalence was 16.05%; and was higher in sheep (23.53%) than in goats (10.64%). Annual prevalence varied from 7.14 in 2014 to 25.00% in 2017. Higher prevalence was recorded in adult (23.81%) and female (21.43%) than in young (7.69%) and male (10.26%) animals. Clinical findings included distended abdomen, dullness, anorexia, fever; difficulty in breathing, recumbency and anaemia. Grossly the abdomens were distended; there were severe frothy exudates in the trachea and air ways. The visceral organs were severely congested. The rumens were markedly distended with foreign materials; as well as feed materials in some cases, thereby confusing the condition with pregnancy. The causes of rumen impaction include foreign materials such as nylon (40.00%), twines and ropes (25.00%), plastics and rubbers (10.00%), wire (2.00%) stones and sands (2.00%), bones and unidentified objects (1.00%).While impaction due to green and dry feeds constitute(15.00%) and cassava peels in 5% of the cases. When clinical sign of distended abdomen is observed in female small ruminants, proper examination should be carried out, bearing in mind the possibility of rumen impaction rather than considering only pregnancy. The high prevalence of rumen impaction recorded in this study call for proper environmental sanitation and proper management of small ruminants in the study area.