SHEEP DISEASES CAUSED BY FEED MINERAL CONCENTRATIONS IMBALANCE IN INTENSIVE SHEEP PRODUCTION FARMS, CENTRAL SUDAN

Authors

1 Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Khartoum Sudan

2 Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, P.O.Box 1482 Buraidah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Mineral excesses or deficiencies in sheep feed are known to result in serious diseases (Underwood, 1981). In a previous report we showed that a deficiency of zinc in sheep feed could result from the low content of the mineral in the diet (Mahmoud et al., 1983)and its effect was worse when feed copper concentration was above normal (Mahmoud et al., 1985). In this paper we report a seven years experience on sheep diseases that occurred in an intensive production farm which had a highly unbalanced mineral content in the grown feed. The animals were also fed on a concentrate diet to which calcium was the only added mineral.

Main Subjects