Postmortem study on indigestible foreign bodies in rumen and reticulum of cattle: (Case: Haramaya and Awaday Municipal Abattoirs, Eastern Ethiopia)

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.