N. Hailat et al., PATHOLOGY OF THE RUMEN IN GOATS CAUSED BY PLASTIC FOREIGN-BODIES WITHREFERENCE TO ITS PREVALENCE IN JORDAN, Small ruminant research, 30(2), 1998, pp. 77-83
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.