Rumen Fermentation Pattern of Sheep in Health and Digestive Diseases

Rumen fermentation pattern of sheep is greatly affected by several factors. This investigation was conducted to evaluate the effect of sex, seasons and digestive disorders on physical examination, blood constituents and rumen fermentation pattern in Baladi Egyptian sheep. For this objective, total number of 105 sheep was classified according to clinical presentation into apparently healthy 58 and clinically diseased 47. The apparently healthy animals were divided according seasons into: autumn 15, spring 16, summer 17 and winter 10, while they were divided according to sex into: ram 26 and ewe 32. Diseased animals were suffering clinically from different digestive disorders; simple indigestion 19, rumen acidosis 12, rumen alkalosis 8 and frothy bloat 8. All animals were subjected to detailed case history, comprehensive clinical examination and blood and rumen liquor sampling for analysis. Obtained results revealed that seasons of year and digestive diseases have variable significant effect on physical examination, blood constituents and rumen fermentation pattern of sheep.