CLINICAL AND LABORATORY STUDIES OF FACIAL ECZEMA SYNDROME IN LOCAL SHEEP BREEDS OF BASRAH GOVERNORATE

The study was carried out on 523 local sheep breeds of different ages and of bothsexes represents different herds, reared in different areas of Basrah governorate. Fiftyfour(54) local sheep breeds were show different clinical sings including sings ofphotosensitization, parakeratosis , alopecia, Intense itching ,swelling of ears, anorexiaand decreased milk production and twenty three(23) clinically healthy local sheepbreeds were considered as controls. The study was documented at late summer andearly autumn time / 2015. Complete clinical examinations had been applied to allanimals. Results indicated that diseased sheep show signs of anorexia, salivation,decrease milk production in milking animals, transient diarrhea, hypotricosis speciallyof face with irregular patches of wool looseness, Intense itching of different bodyparts, signs of parakeratosis, swelling and dropping of ears, icteric mucousmembranes specially of eyes, furthermore, on clinical examinations diseased animalsshow rapid abdominal respiration, tachycardia with strong heart beats, decreaseruminal contractions and increase body temperature, moreover hematologicalexaminations show significant decrease in total RBC, Hb and PCV count reflectingMacrocytic hypochromic anemia, moreover total leukocytes count were alsoincreased significantly due to increase lymphocytes and eosinophiles. Dataconcerning biochemical analysis revealed significantly decrease in total protein valuesand zinc, whereas ALT.AST.ALP. Total and direct bilirubine and GGT, weresignificantly increased in diseased sheep compared with controls. Postmortemexamination of dead or slaughtered animals showed enlarged icteric liver and have amarked lobular pattern with yellow white patches of necrotic lesions, However somecases show atrophied and marked fibrosed liver, in addition, histopathologicalexamination of skin raveled hyperkeratosis, parakeratosis, acanthosis with vacuolatedkeratinocytes and infiltration of mononuclear inflammatory cells mainly lymphocytes,  moreover keratinized epidermis of the skin indicated severe parakeratosis with thickkeratin deposition and infiltration of lymphocytes, however liver of dead orslaughtered animals show severe fibrosis of portal region with presence of edematousfluid around bile duct and portal vasculatures were found congested, furthermore,stenosis of bile duct due to hepatic fibrosis was detected with edematous fluids aroundportal region included bile duct .It had been concluded that the results revealed thatthe facial eczema syndrome was hepatogenic, light allergic eczema caused by toxichepatic dysfunctions and hepatonecrosis in grazing sheep in this area