Studies on Foreign Bodies Syndrome in Cattle of South Gujarat

Foreign bodies syndrome is the subject of attention almost all over the world and causes great economic loss to the animal owners as the affected animal losses normal rhythm of digestion and commercial value due to reduction in milk production. It is more common in cattle due to lack of oral discrimination feeding habit, lead to the ingestion of foreign bodies which would be rejected by other species (Radostits, et al, 2000). Low nutritional status of cattle have forced to scavenge for food in the urban streets and refuse dumps paving way for consumption of both penetrating and non penetrating foreign bodies. Approximately, 95% of urban stray cattle in India are suffering from various ailments due to hazardous materials, mostly plastic bags inside their abdomen (Singh, 2005). The sequelae of penetrating foreign body in cattle are known and their diagnosis often is simple, however, non penetrating foreign bodies pose a great problem for the diagnosis. A number of other diseases such as simple indigestion, ketosis, diaphragmatic hernia, abomasal displacement and metritis have similar clinical symptoms (Balasubramanian and Ganapathy,1965). Therefore, the present study was undertaken.