Parasitic disease is one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in small ruminants. The direct causes of economic loss due to parasitic infestations are acute illness, death and premature slaughter. In addition, another cause of economic loss to small animal ruminant farmers is rejection of edible parts of infested animals during meat inspection. The indirect losses are due to decrease ...

Different systems for calculating energy and protein requirements for goats and sheep are compared and discussed. It is suggested that the Langston University system or the recommendations of Mandal et al. (2004) should be used for goats and the recommendations of Paul et al (2003) for growing sheep. For pregnant and lactating sheep in the tropics there are no recent recommendations, which is w...

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a contagious viral disease of cloven-footed animals. It is endemic in Pakistan with huge economic losses. The aim of the study was to estimate the sero-prevalence of FMD in small ruminants (sheep and goats) kept in proximity to large ruminants with a recent history of FMD outbreak. The study was conducted in seven purposively selected districts of Pakistan. A tot...

Livestock have made major contribution to human societies by providing food, shelter, fuel, and services.  Sheep and goat are economically important livestock play an important socioeconomic role for small and large farmers in Libya.  Small ruminant animal meat is popular for Libyan customers, and demand is particularly high during religious and cultural festivals.  Small ruminants is valued fo...

Enzootic ovine abortion is caused by Chlamydia abortus and may result in abortion among small ruminants during the last 2-3 weeks of pregnancy. Enzootic abortion is diagnosed by isolation of the agent or detection of its nucleic acid in the products of abortion or vaginal excretions of freshly aborted females. Isolation of chlamydial agents in cell culture is the gold standard, so in the presen...

This paper reviews the technical bases of in vitro embryo production in small ruminants with special attention to the results obtained by our group in Northeastern Brazil. The laparoscopic oocyte recovery in hormonally treated live animals indicates a promising future for the application of this technique to genetic improvement program. New molecular biology tools should provide information to ...