Small Ruminant Research 110 (2013) 57–61 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Small Ruminant Research jou rn al h om epa ge: www. elsevier.com/locate/smallrumres Prevalence of lung affections in sheep in northern temperate regions of India: A postmortem study Latief Mohammad Dar a,∗ , Mohammad Maqbool Darzi b , Masood Saleem Mir b , Shayuaib Ahmad Kamil b , Adil Rashid a , Swaid Abdullah c a Department of Veterinary Pathology, Khalsa College of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Amritsar 143002, Punjab, India b Shere-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology, Kashmir 191121, J&K, India c Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Khalsa College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Amritsar 143002, Punjab, India a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 26 December 2011 Received in revised form 9 August 2012 Accepted 13 August 2012 Available online 7 September 2012 Keywords: Lung affections Sheep Prevalence Pneumonia Kashmir a b s t r a c t A total of 1385 sheep slaughtered in different abattoirs were screened. The overall preva- lence of lung affections was found to be 24.18%. Age was taken as a risk factor for the occurrence of infection. The prevalence was significantly (P ≤ 0.01) higher in sheep less than 2 years of age (25.40%) as compared to the sheep greater than 2 years of age (19.01%). Assessment of different lung affections in association with body condition of the animals revealed that lung affections were more frequent and severe in animals whose general body condition was weak. Patho-morphological characterization of the lung affections included acute bronchopneumonia, fibrinous bronchopneumonia, chronic bronchopneu- monia, suppurative pneumonia, interstitial pneumonia, verminous pneumonia, bronchitis and bronchiolitis, haemorrhage, congestion and emphysema/atelectasis. It was concluded that lung affections were highly prevalent in the sheep destined for slaughter in Kashmir valley owing to multiple factors, viz., adverse climatic conditions during winters, poor man- agement and lack of proper feeding regimen leading to substantial economic losses due to reduced lamb growth and decreased carcass value. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In a developing agriculture based country like India, the importance of animal husbandry in the economic progress of people cannot be underestimated. Among live- stock sector, sheep husbandry plays a multifaceted role in socio-economic development of the rural households by providing mutton, wool, manure and hides. Economic losses associated with various diseases in sheep and other domestic animals are often the result of a complex interaction between infection, poor management and envi- ronmental conditions. Among the various health related problems, respiratory ailments are the major cause of ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 8146161619. E-mail addresses: shaheenlatief@gmail.com (L.M. Dar), swaidabdullah@gmail.com (S. Abdullah). deaths in the lambs and decreased productivity in the older animals. The respiratory system constitutes the most extensive surface that is exposed directly to the ambient environment. Although, it possesses a local innate defense system, yet it is highly vulnerable to the various environ- mental insults. Lung affections, particularly, pneumonia can have considerable consequences. It is estimated that pneumonia alone causes at least 10% mortality in the sheep population in India (Maru et al., 1990). However, most of the pneumonic cases being insidious are usually detected either at necropsy or after slaughter. Inability to detect and characterize the disease in the live animal warrants an understanding of the epidemiology of pneumonia in sheep in order to facilitate proper disease management. Kashmir valley is located in the northern Himalayas at an altitude of 1730 m above the sea level and falls between 32 ◦ 17 ′ to 36 ◦ 58 ′ North latitude and 73 ◦ 26 ′ to 80 ◦ 30 ′ East longitude. Average temperature ranges between -4 ◦ C and 0921-4488/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.smallrumres.2012.08.006