Ultrasonographic Morphometry of Reticulum in Cattle and Buffaloes

Background: Tremendous achievements have been made in diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of digestive tract affections of bovines throughout the world, wherein clinical traumatic reticuloperitonitis (TRP) is the most commonly reported and studied condition in bovines. TRP is accidental ingestion of foreign body (metallic or non-metallic; penetrating or non-penetrating) objects, which generally get lodged or penetrate the reticulum. The reticulum plays a crucial role in the motility of the digestive tract in bovines and so several invasive and noninvasive methods are used for reticular examination. Hence, the ultrasonographic evaluation of reticular morphometric parameters is the need of the hour.Methods: The present study was undertaken to evaluate ultrasonographic morphometry of reticulum in bovines (Group I, six clinically healthy cattle and Group II, six clinically healthy buffaloes) at the Postgraduate Institute of Veterinary Education and Research, Kamdhenu University, Rajpur (Nava), Himmatnagar, Gujarat. For ultrasonography, using Esaote MyLabDelta Veterinary Ultrasound System with convex transducer (3-5 MHz), a standing left post-xiphoid paramedian approach was adopted. The morphometric parameters viz. half-moon-shaped reticular wall (RW), RW thickness, RW distance from the parietal peritoneum and the roughly triangular area between RW, cranio-ventral rumen sac and diaphragm were evaluated.Result: The mean RW thickness (Buffalo-5.33 +/- 0.58 mm; Cattle-4.53 +/- 0.33 mm), mean distance of the closest point of the RW from the peritoneum (25.77 +/- 3.23 mm; 13.07 +/- 0.67 mm) and mean triangular area (10.21 +/- 4.42 cm2; 4.94 +/- 0.52 cm2) were higher in healthy buffaloes than cattle.