The occurence of umbilical hernias in Karakul sheep
1996
Visser, W.H. | Piek, J.C. (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Windhoek (Namibia))
The occurence of umbilical hernias in Karakul sheep can be as high as 71 percent of the progeny of a ram if all the hernias are taken into account. 25.7 percent of all the lambs born at the Hardap Karakul Centre were born with hernias though only 5 percent had hernias measuring 13 mm and larger. There is a tendency for umbilical hernias smaller than 14 mm to cicatrise within a period of 3 months. The heritability of umbilical hernias found to be 0.12 by the regression of offspring on midparent value (n=74). The conclusion made from these results is that the occurence of umbilical hernias over the whole of Namibia is low and not prevalent in any specific flocks. The environment , pre- and postpartum, could be a causal factor of hernias. Most of the small hernias do not cicatrise and can be ignored. It is recommended that rams with large umbilical hernias should not be retained for breeding purposes
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