Clinical, Hematological and Biochemical Studies on Wool Eating Syndrome in Sheep

This study was carried out on 20 balady sheep belonged to a governmental farm in Alexandria governorate. Ten sheep were suffered from eating of each other s wool (wool eating habit) , weight loss, apparent parakeratosis and different degrees of alopecia . The other 10 sheep were clinically healthy and used as control group. Skin scraping and fecal examination showed that the affected sheep were free from mite infestation and internal parasites. Hematological examination of wool eating sheep showed a significant decrease in hemoglobin and hematocrit without significant changes in erythrocytic count , total leucocytic count, MCV,MCH and MCHC than in healthy animals. Biochemical analysis of serum of affected animals showed significant decrease in serum copper, zinc and iron, total protein and a significant increase in ALP activity than in healthy animals. Non-significant changes in serum calcium, phosphorus, albumin, glucose, urea, creatinine, ALT and AST activity between diseased and healthy animals. It could be concluded that syndrome of wool eating in sheep is caused mainly by multiple trace element deficiencies particularly copper, iron and zinc.