Occurrence of Abortion in Different Breeds of Goats Reared under Semi-intensive Farming System at Organized Farms in Semi-arid Region of India

Among the farm animals, goats have the widest ecological range, and provide revenue, sustenance, and employment to marginal, small and landless farmers (Ørskov, 2011; Wodajo et al., 2020; Singh et al., 2023). The main issues with goat farming are the diseases that cause goat farmers and entrepreneurs to suffer significant financial losses (Mahdi et al., 2015; Doley and Nekibuddin, 2017). Genital disorders inflict heavy economic losses to goat farmers, and among them, abortion, retention of placenta and stillbirth are major ones (Azawi et al., 2010; Beena et al., 2017). Out of these genital disorders, the problem of abortion is considered the most important (Alemayehu et al., 2021). Abortion causes the number of unproductive females in a herd to increase and the number of productive animals and milk output to decrease (Ali et al., 2019; Lokamar et al., 2020). A healthy herd of goats should have an abortion rate of less than 2%, the rate between 2 and 5% indicating its endemic state and over 5% requiring aggressive surveillance and monitoring (Menzies, 2011). According to Hovingh (2002), 3 to 5 abortions out of every 100 pregnancies annually are regarded as “normal” in the case of cattle. Abortion in animals, including goats, is caused by infectious as well as non-infectious agents, but the majority of caprine abortions are caused by infectious ones (Smith and Sherman, 2009; Entrican et al., 2009; Mishra et al., 2023). The present investigation was carried out to study occurrence of abortion in different breeds of goats reared under semi-intensive farming system at the organized farms in the semi-arid region of India, and to assess the association of season, parity of the aborted goats and stage of pregnancy with occurrence of abortion.

Data on caprine abortions was collected from Jamunapari, Barbari and Jakhrana breeds of goats reared under semi-intensive farming system at ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom, Farah, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh (India). The study area was situated in the semi-arid zone of western Uttar Pradesh, India (27.10°- 27.50° N, 77-78.0°E, MSL169.2). The goats were being reared in an organized way, and the data collection was done during a 12-year period starting from 2011-2012 to 2022-2023. In the present study, the stages of pregnancy were categorized as early, mid and late, respectively, up to 2 months of pregnancy, between 2 and 3.5 months of pregnancy and after 3.5 months of pregnancy. Similarly, the periods from March 1 to June 15; October 1 to February 29; and June 15 to September 30 were classified as summer, winter and rainy seasons, respectively. The following formula was used to determine the abortion rate.
   
The Chi-Square test and ANOVA using SPSS (v12) and Microsoft Office Excel Sheet were performed to statistically analyze the abortion data and determine the relationship between the variables.

Among animals, especially goats, abortion is a very important health issue that results in heavy financial losses for goat farmers (Alemayehu et al., 2021). The current study was conducted for the first time to assess the status of abortion in different breeds (Jamunapari, Barbari and Jakhrana) of goats reared under the semi-intensive farming system at organized farms in the semi-arid region of India with respect to season as well as stage of pregnancy at the time of abortion and the parity of the aborted goats. The overall abortion rate was found 1.82% (Table 1), which suggests that the goats were in good health with regard to the incidence of abortions (Menzies, 2011), indicating that the farms were well managed. Compared to the present study, Goel et al., (2005) reported a higher abortion rate (4.4%) among the goats reared under the semi-intensive farming system at organized farms in the semi-arid region of India. In contrast to our finding, cattle reared under a semi-intensive system had higher abortion rate compared to those kept under an extensive management system (Deresa et al., 2020). Similar abortion rates were seen in the Barbari and Jakhrana breeds and significantly higher (p<0.05) from Jamunapari and combined farm (Table 1). This difference may be attributable to the variations in breed and the management practices implemented at the respective farms (Mee, 2023).
 

       
The rate of abortion in goats (combined farm) and among individual breeds had a significant association with seasons, and the majority of abortions observed in the winter, followed by the rainy and summer seasons (Table 2). The winter months saw the highest number of abortions, which may have been caused by the cold stress, but more research is needed to corroborate this conclusion (Mishra et al., 2023). In concurrence with the current study, the majority of abortion cases were noticed in the winter months in the goats reared under the extensive farming system (Mishra et al., 2023). According to Yaqoob et al., (2016), there is an increased occurrence of abortions in cattle in the summer months and it was said that heat stress was the cause of this observation (Yakoob et al., 2016). Nevertheless, Lopez-Gatius et al., (2004) found no correlation between the season and the number of abortions in cattle. Hence, further investigation is required to support the above finding.
 

 
The rate of abortion in goats (combined farm) had significant association with stage of pregnancy, but among the individual breeds, no such association was found, and most of the abortions were noticed in the later stage of pregnancy, followed by the mid- and early stages (Table 3). According to Pretzer (2008), infectious agents are the common cause of abortions in animals, including goats, and the majority of these agents induce abortions in the later stage of pregnancy. That is why, most abortions in our study were found in the later stage (Smith and Sherman, 2009). Similar to our finding, the majority of abortions were observed in later-stage pregnant goats reared in a free-range farming system (Deresa et al., 2020; Mishra et al., 2023). However, more research is needed to support this claim.
 

       
The rate of abortion in goats (combined farm) and among individual breeds had no significant association with the parity of pregnant goats (Table 4). In contrast to what we found, Mishra et al., (2023) found a significant (p<0.01) association between abortions and parities of pregnancy in the goats raised under the extensive farming system, and goats with parities 1 to 3 had the highest rate of abortions (88.02%; 507/576). Likewise, Sigdel et al., (2022) and Reese et al., (2020) found significant association between parity and abortion in cattle. Therefore, a thorough investigation is still needed to validate this finding.
 

In the current study, the overall abortion rate of 1.82% was found in the goats raised in organized farms in the semi-arid region of India under the semi-intensive farming system suggests relatively good health and effective farm management. The abortion rates varied significantly by season, with the highest incidence observed in winter, potentially due to cold stress. The majority of abortions occurred in the later stages of pregnancy, aligning with findings that the majority of the infectious agents often cause late-term abortions. No significant association was found between abortion rates and parity in this study.

The current study’s logistical help was provided by the Director of the ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats (ICAR-CIRG), for which the authors are grateful. The in-charges of the various livestock farms at ICAR-CIRG are also appreciated for supplying the abortion data.

Ethical statement
 
There was no animal sample collection in the study. Therefore, permission from the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) and the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) was not necessary.

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.