PATHOLOGY OF THE RUMEN IN GOATS CAUSED BY PLASTIC FOREIGN-BODIES WITHREFERENCE TO ITS PREVALENCE IN JORDAN

The lesions in rumens of goats with soft foreign bodies (SFB), namely plastics, and its prevalence in Jordan are investigated. In cases wher e hard masses of plastics were seen, congestion, erosions, focally den uded areas and focal thickening of nodular-and proliferative-type were seen in the mucosal wall of the rumen. Shortening and stunting of the papillae with irregular distribution, and in some cases thinning of t he walls were also observed. Histopathologic examination revealed the presence of rumenitis and prolonged rete pegs with a papillary or fron d-like downward growths. This hyperplastic growth also took the shape of numerous epithelial islands of variable thickness, approaching the muscularis mucosae. These revealed differentiated stratified squamous epithelium with intercellular bridges, keratin formation and with seve ral mitotic figures as seen under a high-power field (40x). In cases w here floating plastic was found, the changes were less prominent. Thes e findings suggest that plastics play an important role in the pathoge nesis of rumenitis and ruminal hyperplasia. This could be the conseque nce of partial degradation and/or chronic irritation of plastics. Out of 347 rumens examined in the summer of 1996, 39 (11%); 10/136 (7%) ru mens at Ajloun and 29/311 (7%) at Irbid slaughterhouses contained plas tics. Out of the 888 goats brought to the Veterinary Health Centre (VH C) from January 1993 to September 1997 for treatment of different cond itions, 32 (3.6%) had plastic impaction and were treated by rumenotomy of which 32/722 (4.5%) were older than one year. Out of 28 goats brou ght dead to VHC for routine necropsy examinations, three goats had pla stic impaction. No significant differences were found in the prevalenc e of plastic among Shami, local and mixed-breed goats. These results s uggest that subclinical cases exceed clinical ones. The prevalence, al though when compared with our previous results in sheep, is low, yet i t is still considered quite high and public awareness and anti-litteri ng laws and a clean-up of the environment would substantially reduce t his problem in Jordan. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V, All rights reser ved.