2020 SCIENCELINE

O nline J ournal of A nimal and F eed R esearch

Volume 10, Issue 4: 172-179; July 27, 2020

POSTMORTEM STUDY ON INDIGESTIBLE FOREIGN BODIES IN

RUMEN AND RETICULUM OF CATTLE (CASE: HARAMAYA AND

AWADAY MUNICIPAL ABATTOIRS, EASTERN ETHIOPIA)

Ibsa AMIN and Tewodros FENTAHUN^

Unit of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, University of Gondar, P.O. Box 196, Gondar, Ethiopia.



Email: tedyvet@gmail.com;

: 0000-0002-2955-5638

^Supporting Information

ABSTRACT: A cross-sectional study was conducted from November, 2017 to March, 2018 at Haramaya and

Awaday Municipal Abattoirs of Oromia Regional State, Eastern Ethiopia, with the objectives of assessing the

prevalence of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies, identifying types of foreign bodies and associated risk factors

for the occurrences of foreign bodies. Following appropriate ante-mortum examinations, postmortem

examinations were employed for the recovery of foreign body from rumen and reticulum. The study animals

were selected by using systematic random sampling using regular interval to study animal from the total

slaughtered animals. From a total of 384 (207 female and 177 male) cattle examined, 41.7% (n=160) were

found to contain foreign bodies at slaughter. When the prevalence was compared between genders, breed,

among different age groups, and different body condition score, higher prevalence of foreign bodies 50.7%,

75.0%, 80.0%, 83.3%, were observed in female, cross breed, age older than 10 years, and animal having poor

body condition score respectively. These aforementioned factors are considered as potential risk factors were

highly significantly associated with the occurrence of foreign bodies. Rumen harbored mostly plastic materials

while reticulum was the major site for the retention of metallic objects. The non-penetrating foreign bodies have

higher prevalence than penetrating foreign bodies. The commonly recovered non-penetrating foreign bodies

were plastics (46.9%), cloth (30.0%), rope (21.3%) and leather (18.8%). The penetrating foreign bodies were

metals (5%). Plastics were recovered as the most common foreign bodies and followed by cloths, Ropes, and

leathers. It is concluded that the detection of this level of prevalence of foreign bodies in cattle causes high

mortality and morbidity, reduced production and productivity. Therefore, appropriate solid waste disposal system

need to implement in the study area to prevent health risk of ruminants and also to protect the environment.

Keywords: Body Condition Score, Cattle, Foreign body, Reticulum, Rumen.

INTRODUCTION

Ingestion of foreign bodies is one of the major bottle necks to livestock development in the tropics (Gupta and

Single, 2013; Fasil, 2016 ). In Ethiopia, ruminants are kept under an extensive type of management are likely to be

exposed to the ingestion of indigestible garbage from various sources due to a wide spread environmental

contamination with plastic bags, absence of policy to protect environment and frequent occurrence of drought that

predispose animals to nutritional deficiency and pica (Abebe and Nuru, 2011 ).

Gastrointestinal foreign bodies are among the most common surgical emergency in veterinary medicine.

Cattle are more susceptible to foreign body syndrome than small ruminants because cattle do not use their lips for

prehension, they are more likely to ingest foreign bodies than small ruminants as they are more likely to eat

chopped feed in which foreign bodies may be incorporated (Bayne and Edmondson, 2020 ).

According to different studies, the common non-piercing foreign bodies commonly ingested by ruminants are

plastic bags, sack thread, ropes, leather, rubber, bed linen, pieces of lead pipe, straw baskets, hair and plant fibers

(bezoars) (Anwar et al., 2013 ). While wire, needles, nails and stones are the major penetrating foreign bodies

isolated from ruminants (Bwatota et al., 2018 ). The indiscriminate feeding habits and mineral deficiency make

them susceptible to inadvertent ingestion of foreign materials (Priyanka and Dey, 2018 ).

Environmental pollution is one of the growing problems for grazing animals due to absence of recycling

industries, cleaning of environment cultures, improper disposal of plastic bags; free grazing animals eat plastic bags

especially in towns and villages (Bhaskara and Sasikala, 2012; Reuters, 2019 ). These plastic bags are indigestible

and their accumulation in the rumen of grazing animals may lead to adverse effect on health (Ghurashi et al.,

2009); plastic bags resist to biodegradation and pollute for decades and centuries and pose great risk to human

health and environment (Ramaswamy and Sharama, 2011 ). Feed shortage usually occurs at specific time of the

year in most part of Ethiopia. Moreover, most owners do not provide supplementary feed to animals. These in turn

may predispose the animals to negative energy balance and force them to feed on unusual materials including

plastics, clothes, ropes and even metallic substances (Bhaskara and Sasikala, 2012; Tesfaye et al., 2012 ). In

addition, industrialization and mechanization of agriculture have further increased the incidence of foreign bodies in

the animals (Semieka, 2010 ). The ingestion of foreign bodies causes various problems in different organ of the

animal mainly in rumen and reticulum. The problem that are caused vary with the duration that the foreign body

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Citation: Amin I and Fentahun T (2020). Postmortem study on indigestible foreign bodies in rumen and reticulum of cattle (case: Haramaya and Awaday municipal

abattoirs, Eastern Ethiopia). Online J. Anim. Feed Res., 10(4): 172-179.

has been present, the location of foreign body, the degree of obstruction that is caused as well as problems

associated with the material of the foreign body. Glossitis, esophagitis, ruminitis, impaction of rumen, traumatic

pericarditis (TP) and traumatic reticulo peritonitis (TRP) are the possible health problems which can be caused by

the ingestion of foreign bodies by the cattle (Desiye and Mersha, 2012 ). Traumatic reticulo-peritonitis disease in

cattle is caused by the ingestion of foreign bodies in the reticulum swallowed metallic objects such as nail or pieces

of wire fall directly on the reticulum or pass into the rumen and subsequently carried over the rumeno-reticular folds

into the cranioventral part of the reticulum (Radostits et al., 2007; Braun et al., 2018 ).

The presence of foreign bodies in the rumen and reticulum hampers the absorption of volatile fatty acids and

consequently reduction in the rate of animal fattening (Bassa and Tesfaye, 2017 ) the perforation of the wall of the

reticulum can also allow leakage of ingest and bacteria which contaminates the peritoneal cavity, resulting in local

or diffuse peritonitis (Anwar et al., 2013 ).

Animals with large amount of blunt foreign bodies show anorexia, depression, intermittent respiratory distress,

recurrent rumen tympany, rumen stasis, dehydration, reduced milk yield, distended left paralumbarfossa and

sometimes vomiting (Reddy and Sasikala, 2012; Abu-Seida and Al-Abbadi, 2014 ). Tachycardia, muffled heart

sounds, distended jugular veins, pericardial sounds like splashing, rubbing or squeaking sounds, brisket and ventral

edema were observed in cattle with traumatic reticulopericarditis (Ramin et al., 2011 ). Shrunken rumen,

strangulated foreign bodies, congested ruminal mucosa and ulceration are the common necropsy findings in

animals with foreign body syndrome (Abu-Seida and Al-Abbadi, 2016; Serem et al., 2019 ).

This disease is of high economic importance and serious due to severe reduction in milk and meat production,

treatment costs, potential fatalities and fetal losses in affected animals (Sileshi et al., 2013 ). The condition is

usually common in urban and peri- urban areas where extensive building are carried out and proper plastic material

disposal is not conditioned and so thrown on roads and near the fence or anywhere and that is way our dairy cattle

are dying mainly associated with foreign bodies (Ramaswamy and Sharama, 2011 ). Many efforts were made to

study infectious disease prevalent in the country, however, solid environmental pollution (Foreign Body’s) have been

given lesser attention to be treated as a separate health problem. Therefore, the objectives of current study were to

assess the prevalence of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies in cattle slaughtered at Haramaya and Awaday

Municipal Abattoirs. As well as, the type of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies will be identified.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study area

The study was conducted in Haramaya and Awaday municipal abattoirs, Eastern Hararghe zone, and Oromia

region. The Awaday town is located 9021’10’’ N, 42013’46’’ E with average altitude of 1962 m at a distance of 510

km from capital Addis Ababa (Mekonnen and Uttama, 2014 ).The Haramaya town is located at 509 Km from Addis

Ababa at an elevation of 1400 to 2340 meter above sea level. The town situated between a latitude and longitude

of 42°01′E and 9°24′N respectively. The mean annual rainfall received range from 600 to 1260 mm with bimodal

nature Minimum and maximum annual temperature range from 6⁰C to 12⁰C and 17⁰C to 25⁰C respectively. The

relative humidity varies between 60% to 80%. The farming system in the area is mixed type (crop-livestock

production). The total population of people in the area is estimated to be 352,031 according to (CSA, 2013). The

livestock population of the study district is estimated to be 76 336 cattle, 65 083 sheep, 84 916 goats, 22 355

donkeys, 356 camels and 89 800 chickens (CSA, 2012 ).

Study animals

The study was conducted on 384 apparently healthy slaughtered cattle in Haramaya and Awaday Municipal

Abattoirs from November, 2017 to April, 2018. It has been difficult to trace back the origin of animals, since the

animals pass a chain of markets. Nevertheless, attempts made in this regard revealed that majority of them were

bought from nearby markets. Animals from both local and cross breed cattle were brought to both municipal

abattoirs. Even though, the study animals were kept under broad range of management and animals in most of the

rural areas were kept to graze pasture on grassland and supplementary feedings of crop residue when pasture in

scarce especially during long dry season.

Study design

A cross sectional study was conducted from November, 2017 to April, 2018 to assess the prevalence of the

rumen and reticulum foreign bodies, to identify the types of foreign bodies, and their associated risk factors for the

occurrence of the foreign bodies were sex, age, Breed, and body conditions were considered as risk factor for

occurrence of foreign bodies.

Sampling method

A cattle slaughtered during each visit day were selected by systematic random sampling using regular interval

to study the prevalence of foreign body and identification of types of foreign bodies in rumen and reticulum in cattle

slaughtered at Haramaya and Awaday Municipal Abattoirs of Eastern Ethiopia.

Sample size determination

The study was carried out by determining the sample size according to Thrusfield (2005), for an infinite

population with 95% confidence level, 5% desired absolute precision by considering expected prevalence of the

rumen and reticulum foreign bodies in cattle in the area. Therefore, the sample size was as follows:

173

Citation: Amin I and Fentahun T (2020). Postmortem study on indigestible foreign bodies in rumen and reticulum of cattle (case: Haramaya and Awaday municipal

abattoirs, Eastern Ethiopia). Online J. Anim. Feed Res., 10(4): 172-179.

n= 1.96²x P^exp(1-P^exp) /d²

Where:

n = required sample size; P^exp= expected prevalence; d²= desired absolute precision.

Based on the above formula 384 animals were needed but there was no previous study on the occurrence of

rumen and reticulum foreign bodies of cattle slaughtered at haramaya and awaday Municipal Abattoirs. The sample

size for this work were determined using 50% expected prevalence and 5% absolute precision at 95% confidence

level using the above formula, 384 cattle are intended to be sampled.

Data collections

Ante mortem examination. Ante mortem examination on individual animals was done for assessment of age,

sex, breed, body condition. Sex (female and male), age was categorized into young (<5 years), adult (5-10 years)

and old (>10 years), body condition (good, medium and poor). Body condition of cattle was recorded as poor,

medium and good based on the appearance of the animal and manual palpation of the spines proses and

transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae described by Nicholson and Butterworth (1986 ) and breeds was

classified as local and cross based on the species of animal brought to abattoir. The age of the animal was also

scored according to Mari (1989 ) based on dentition. Each animal selected for the study was further identified by

providing a unique identification number that could be used for both ante-mortem and post-mortem examinations

of the animal and each animals mark for the identification by writing a code on its gluteal muscle by using ink.

Postmortem Examination. In the postmortem examination rumen and reticulum were examined. Immediately

after slaughtered in the evisceration stage, the stomach was carefully removed from the abdominal cavity and open

and explored for the presence of any foreign material by visualization and palpation. Any foreign bodies obtained

during inspection are washed by water to removing feed material and identified. When the finding is positive, the

location and type of the foreign bodies was recorded otherwise recorded as negative postmortem recorded sheet.

Data management and statistical analysis

The data collected was entered and scored in Microsoft excel worksheet. Before subjected to statistical

analysis, the data were thoroughly screened for errors and properly coded. For analysis SPSS Microsoft software

Version 20 was used. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to summarize and present the data collected. The

prevalence of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies were calculated as percentage by dividing total number of cattle

positive for foreign bodies to the total number of cattle examined. Pearson chi square (χ²) test was employed to

assess the existence of association between prevalence of the foreign bodies and potential risk factors considered.

For (χ²) test, p-value < 0.05 were considered significant whereas p-value > 0.05 considered non-significant.

RESULT

A cross sectional study was conducted from November 2017 to March, 2018 at Haramaya and Awaday Municipal

Abattoir. From the total of 384 cattle’s examined for the presences of any foreign bodies in their rumen and

reticulum, 41.7% (160/384) of them were found positive. From 160 positive cases of foreign body, 129 (80.6%)

were occurred in rumen while 16 (10%) in reticulum and 14 (8.8%) in rumen and reticulum. The types of foreign

bodies were detected plastics, leathers, clothes, ropes, Stone or Calcified and Metal. From this plastics 75 (46.9%),

cloth 48 (30.0%), rope 34 (21.3%) and leather 30(18.8%) were more frequently encountered of the positive cases

respectively.

Foreign body regarding to breed

From the total 384 animals 352 local breeds and 32 cross breeds were examined and 136(38.6%) and

24(75.0%) of foreign bodies were detected in both breeds respectively. So, the prevalence of rumen and reticulum

foreign bodies was higher in cross breed cattle. The statically analysis also showed that there exist highly significant

differences among different breed (p=0.000) which is P<0.05 in the occurrences of foreign bodies (Table 1).

Table 1 - Breed distribution of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies in cattle at Haramaya and Awaday Municipal

Abattoirs.

Breed

Foreign body

Total

Local

49 (13.9%)

15(4.3%)

22(6.2%)

10(2.8%)

4(1.1%)

8(2.3%)

10(2.8%)

7(2.0%)

5(1.4%)

Cross

7 (21.9%)

Plastic

Rope

Cloth

Leather

Stone or Calcified

Metal

Plastic and rope

Cloth and leather

Plastic and cloth

Leather and plastic

Cloth and rope

No foreign body

1(3.1%)

4(12.5%)

8(25.0%)

5(1.4%)

217(61.6%)

225

Total

χ²= 15.958; p=0.00

352

384

174

Citation: Amin I and Fentahun T (2020). Postmortem study on indigestible foreign bodies in rumen and reticulum of cattle (case: Haramaya and Awaday municipal

abattoirs, Eastern Ethiopia). Online J. Anim. Feed Res., 10(4): 172-179.

Foreign bodies relation with age

Study animals were grouped in to three as young (< 5 years), adult (5-10 years) and old (> 10 years) From 160,

194 and 30 animals were examined with age in these age groups, 38(23.8%), 98(50.5%) and 24(80.0%) were

found positive, respectively. Foreign bodies were more frequently encountered in old animals than other two groups.

The statically analysis also showed that there exist highly significant differences among the three age groups

(p=0.000) which is P<0.05 in the occurrences of foreign bodies as shows in (Table 2).

Foreign bodies in relation to sex

From 160 positive animals, 105 (50.7%) and 55 (31.1%) were detected in female and male animals,

respectively. Foreign bodies were observed at the maximum of 50.7% in female cattle compared to male 31.1%.

There was statistically strongly significant association (p= 0.00) in the frequency of occurrence between male and

female (Table 3).

Table 2 - Age distribution of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies in cattle at Haramaya and Awaday Municipal

Abattoirs.

Age

Foreign body

Total

≤5 year

22(13.8%)

6(3.8%)

3(1.9%)

5-10 year

32(16.5%)

9(4.6%)

17(8.8%)

10(5.2%)

2(1.0%)

4(2.1%)

11(5.7%)

4(2.1%)

≥10years

2(6.7%)

3(10.0%)

4(13.3%)

2(6.7%)

3(10.0%)

1(3.3%)

Plastic

Rope

Cloth

Leather

Stone or Calcified

Metal

Plastic and rope

Cloth and leather

Plastic and cloth

Leather and plastic

Cloth and rope

No foreign body

Total

4(2.5%)

3(1.9%)

225

384

9(30.0%)

6(20.0%)

122(76.2%)

160

97(50.0%)

194

χ²= 45.518 ; p=0.00

Table 3 - Sex distribution of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies in cattle at Haramaya and Awaday Municipal

Abattoirs.

Sex

Foreign body

Total

Female

29(14.0%)

9(4.3%)

22(10.6%)

11(5.3%)

3(1.4%)

1(0.5%)

7(3.4%)

3(1.4%)

4(1.9%)

9(4.3%)

102(49.3%)

207

Female

27(15.3%)

6(3.4%)

1(0.6%)

3(1.7%)

1(0.6%)

7(4.0%)

3(1.7%)

4(2.3%)

2(1.1%)

Plastic

Rope

Cloth

Leather

Stone or Calcified

Metal

Plastic and rope

Cloth and leather

Plastic and cloth

leather and plastic

Cloth and rope

No foreign body

Total

225

384

123(69.5%)

177

χ²= 15.159 ; p=0.00

Foreign body with regard to body condition score

From total of 384 cattle 24,208 and 152 animals were examined with poor, medium and good body condition,

20 (83.3%), 130 (62.5%) and 10 (6.6%) were positive for foreign body, respectively. The statically analysis also

showed that there exist highly significant differences among the three body condition score groups (p=0.000) which

is P<0.05 in the occurrences of foreign bodies (Table 4).

Foreign bodies with regard to Lodgment sit

From 160 positive cases of foreign body, 129(80.6%) were occurred in rumen while 16(10.0%) in reticulum

and 14(8.8%) in both rumen and reticulum. Prevalence of foreign bodies to lodgment sites was highly statistically

significant (p < 0.05) (Table 5).

175

Citation: Amin I and Fentahun T (2020). Postmortem study on indigestible foreign bodies in rumen and reticulum of cattle (case: Haramaya and Awaday municipal

abattoirs, Eastern Ethiopia). Online J. Anim. Feed Res., 10(4): 172-179.

Table 4 - Prevalence and frequency of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies in cattle slaughtered at Haramaya and

Awaday Municipal Abattoirs in association with body condition.

Body Condition Score

Foreign body

Total

Poor

1(4.2%)

5(20.8%)

4(16.7%)

1(4.2%)

3(12.5%)

2(8.3%)

4(16.7%)

Medium

49(23.6%)

12(5.8%)

18(8.7%)

10(4.8%)

3(1.4%)

5(2.4%)

8(3.8%)

7(3.4%)

5(2.4%)

4(1.9%)

9(4.3%)

78(37.5%)

208

Good

6(3.9%)

3(2.0%)

Plastic

Rope

Cloth

Leather

Stone or Calcified

Metal

Plastic and rope

Cloth and leather

Plastic and cloth

Leather and plastic

Cloth and rope

No foreign body

Total

225

384

4(16.7%)

143(94.1%)

152

χ²= 131.22; p=0.00

Table 5 - Frequency of occurrence of rumen and reticulum foreign body in cattle slaughtered at Haramaya and

Awaday Municipal Abattoirs.

Location site of Foreign Body

Foreign body

Total

Rumen and

Reticulum

Rumen

None

Plastic

Rope

Cloth

Leather

Stone or Calcified

Metal

3(19.0%)

44(34.11%)

11(8.53%)

21(16.3%)

14(10.9%)

9(64.3%)

4(28.6%)

1(7.14%)

1(6.25%)

4(25.0%)

8(50.0%)

Plastic and rope

Cloth and leather

Plastic and cloth

Leather and plastic

Cloth and rope

No foreign body

Total

10(7.8)

11(8.53%)

5(3.90%)

4(3.10%)

9(7.0%)

225

384

129

χ²= 379.9; p=0.00

DISCUSSION

Ingestion of indigestible foreign materials by ruminants is a common problem as reported by Ghurashi et al. (2009).

The present study revealed an overall prevalence of 160 (41.7%) of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies in cattle

slaughtered at Haramaya and Awaday Municipal abattoirs. This occurrence of foreign bodies is almost similar with

report of Sheferaw et al. (2014) who reported 41.8% in cattle from the Amhara region of Ethiopia and slightly lower

than the report from eastern Ethiopia at Haramaya University and Haramaya municipal abattoirs Negash et al .

(2015) who reported 43.4% in cattle and significantly lower than the prevalence (77.41%) which was reported by

Ismail et al. (2007) in adult dairy cattle having indigestible foreign bodies in their fore-stomach, as the result they

are suffering from recurrent rumen tympani in Jordan. These differences could be due to the differences in

availability of predisposing factors is those area, and the problem of waste management system, poor

management of animals and industrialization increased the incidence of foreign bodies between countries.

Moreover, the time of the study also could play a role for the differences where in recent times the rate of

intensification of animal management is increasing and as a result the probability of animals to be exposed to

foreign materials might be declined as the animals are staying in a limited confinement for longer time.

In present study, the higher prevalence (50.7%) of foreign bodies was detected in female cattle than male

(31.1%). These results are in agreement with the findings of Vanitha et al. (2010) stating that, the foreign bodies

were found more frequently in female cattle than male in their study on 30 stray cattle having clinical symptoms

suggestive of ruminal impaction. Similarly, Zegeye (2011) reported that higher level of occurrence of foreign bodies

in female cattle in retrospective study of clinical cases of farm animal in three years period in University of Gondar

Veterinary Clinic. Roman and Hiwot (2010) have also reported that higher degree of occurrence of foreign bodies in

female ruminants compared to male. This may be due to female animals are more exposed to the environmental

176

Citation: Amin I and Fentahun T (2020). Postmortem study on indigestible foreign bodies in rumen and reticulum of cattle (case: Haramaya and Awaday municipal

abattoirs, Eastern Ethiopia). Online J. Anim. Feed Res., 10(4): 172-179.

pollution as they kept for production purpose for longer period of time and there might be increased appetite of

female animals due to the nutritional demands during pregnancy and lactation.

The highest frequency of occurrence of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies were detected in animal’s ≥10

year (80.0%) followed by 5-10 years (50.5%) and ≤5 years (23.8%) age group of animals. Highest prevalence

(80.0%) of foreign bodies was detected in cattle greater than 10 year than other age group. This finding is in

agreement with Desiye and Mersha (2012) who recover (81.25%) of foreign bodies in cattle greater than 10 year

age. Rahel (2011) also reported (17.85%) of the animals had higher frequency of foreign bodies in rumen and

reticulum in the old age. The present Prevalence is relatively high since it may be that ingestion of foreign bodies is

associated with shortage of forage during the long dry season, owners were not supply supplementary feed and

increased demand of feed, and pollution of grazing land with indigestible foreign bodies.

In this finding, the prevalence was higher in the cross breed cattle (75.0%) compare to local breeds (38.6%).

This findings are agree with the work of Desiye and Mersha (2012) who found 70% in cross breed and 10.77% in

local breed and Rahel (2011) who reported forestomach foreign bodies with the high prevalence of 58.82% in

crossbreeds. Sileshi et al . (2013) reported that cross breed animals are more exposed for indigestible foreign

bodies than local breeds. The higher prevalence in cross breed might be associated with their higher productivity

which requires high demand of nutrition that enforces cattle to indiscriminately feeding and hence increased

exposure to foreign bodies.

This study also identified the highest prevalence of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies were detected in

animals with poor body condition (83.3%) followed by medium (62.5%) and good body condition (6.6%) score

animals. This finding agree with the work of Desiye and Mersha (2012) who recovered foreign body at higher

prevalence from the rumen and reticulum of poor body conditioned animal (72.72%) than medium (35.95%) and

good (7.33%) body condition. Poor body condition by itself might be due to the contribution of the foreign body that

is the animal loss weight after it has been exposed or it might be due to the interference of foreign body with the

absorption of volatile fatty acid (VFA) and thus causes reduced weight gain reported by Rahel (2011).

Metallic foreign bodies were most frequently recovered from reticulum. This finding agrees with the report of

(Sileshi et al ., 2012 ) who recovered metallic foreign bodies at highest prevalence from reticulum. In addition, Desiye

and Mersha (2012) reported the highest prevalence (87.5%) of metallic foreign bodies from reticulum. The reason

might be due to retention of these foreign bodies by the honey comb structure of the reticular mucosa and their

heavy weight give chance to be attracted to the lumen of the reticulum due to gravitational attraction force of these

heavy foreign bodies to the ventral part of the fore-stomach.

The types of foreign bodies detected in this study were plastic, cloth, leather, rope, metal (wire) and stone or

calcified. Berrie et al. (2015) also found the same thing. This study indicated that most foreign bodies occurred in

the rumen (80.6%) than reticulum (10%). This may be due to the fact that many ingested feed goes to the rumen.

The results of this study further indicate that Plastic was the most commonly encountered (45.6%) foreign material

in all study animals, followed by cloth (30.0 %) and rope (21.3%). This finding is in general agreement with various

reports from different areas of Ethiopia (Abebe and Nuru 2011; Roman and Hiwot 2010; Sheferaw et al ., 2014;

Tesfaye et al ., 2012 ). This is due to these materials used for storing wastes, shopping bags and packing food items

and disposed everywhere after using, hence they were eaten by the free grazing animal.

CONCLUSTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The current finding is used to assess the prevalence of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies, to identify the type of

foreign bodies and to identify the magnitude and occurrence of fore stomach foreign bodies done in Haramaya and

Awaday municipal abattoirs. Sex, breed, age, and body condition score were considered risk factors for the

occurrence of foreign bodies. And this study revealed that rumen and reticulum foreign bodies have great economic

significance associated with reduced production and productivity of animals suffering from them. The overall

prevalence of foreign bodies was 160(41.7%). Similarly, Plastic was found the most common foreign bodies found

preferably in Rumen (34.11%). On the other hand, Female (14.0%) local breeds (13.9%), aged 5-10 years (16.5%)

with medium body condition (23.6%) were mostly affected. Degree of association was highly statistically significant

for the occurrence of foreign body in cattle. Both female and cross breed cattle are the most affected groups

compared to that of male and local breed cattle respectively. According to body condition score of cattle, poor body

conditions were more affected groups than cattle which have medium and good body conditions. Most of the

nonmetallic foreign bodies lodged in rumen while metallic foreign bodies lodged in reticulum.

Awareness for owners should be implemented to avoid the risk of foreign body ingestion such as prevent

nutritional deficiencies and not allowing animals in polluted grazing land. Appropriate solid waste disposal system

should be implemented. Enforcement of recycling of plastic bags and other environmental pollutants so that threat

to environment and life can be reduced. The finding of this study could help environmental activists, veterinarians,

and livestock owners to recognize the impact of foreign bodies on cattle’s health and productivity in this area.

DECLARATION

Authors’ contribution

The two authors reviewed the paper and contributed in developing the content.

Availability of data

The data can be availed to the journal upon request.

177

Citation: Amin I and Fentahun T (2020). Postmortem study on indigestible foreign bodies in rumen and reticulum of cattle (case: Haramaya and Awaday municipal

abattoirs, Eastern Ethiopia). Online J. Anim. Feed Res., 10(4): 172-179.

Consent to publish

Not applicable

Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no competing of interests.

Acknowledgement

The authors would wish to acknowledge Eco Fuels Kenya LTD (EFK) for their support through the whole process of

developing this publication.

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