Vet World   Vol.11   September-2018  Article-17

Ruminal impaction due to plastic materials - An increasing threat to ruminants and its impact on human health in developing countries

Background and Aim: Ruminal impaction due to plastic materials is a condition, in which indigestible plastic foreign bodies accumulate in the rumen of ruminants leading to ruminal impaction, indigestion, recurrent tympany, and many other adverse health effects. It is caused by the indiscriminate feeding of ruminants on indigestible plastic waste materials. The disease is primarily noticed in stray animals residing in urban areas of developing countries. Ingested plastic materials in the rumen slowly release the chemicals in rumen fluid, which intern enter the food chain through milk and meat products. These chemicals have a detrimental effect on human health. At present, exploratory rumenotomy is the only choice for both diagnosis and treatment of ruminal impaction due to plastic materials in ruminants. Control measures include good animal husbandry practices and proper disposal of plastic waste materials. The present review discusses in depth about the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and control of ruminal impaction due to plastic materials in ruminants and also highlights its impact on human health.

Keywords: developing countries, human health, plastic materials, ruminal impaction, ruminants, urban areas.

How to cite this article: Priyanka M, Dey S (2018) Ruminal impaction due to plastic materials - An increasing threat to ruminants and its impact on human health in developing countries, Veterinary World, 11(9): 1307-1315.

Received: 08-06-2018  Accepted: 03-08-2018     Published online: 20-09-2018

Corresponding author: M. Priyanka   E-mail: bidarvet@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2018.1307-1315

Copyright: Priyanka and Dey, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.