Vet on Call: Why you should never give cows uji

Cornelius Lang'at waters his dairy cattle at Tegat Farm in Elburgon. Livestock farmers are advised against feeding cereal grain flour porridge to their livestock as this causes the usually fatal lactic acidaemia in the animals. PHOTO | JOHN NJOROGE | NMG

What you need to know:

  • Cows and other ruminants have a complex digestive system comprising of four stomachs, which cant digest porridge.
  • Cereal grain flour porridge is a very good energy and water source for any animal. However, the animal being given the food must have a stomach and digestive system biologically made for utilising food with high content of carbohydrates.
  • High carbohydrate diet, fed to ruminants in large quantities, is a disaster in the rumen. The organ contains billions of micro-organisms of many types, each specialised to digest different types of food or to make some nutrients such as proteins and vitamins.
  • Should you find your cow or any ruminant has eaten high carbohydrate diet of any form, observe the animal and report to your veterinary service provider as soon as the animal loses appetite. Prompt treatment may save the animal.

In my three decades of veterinary practice, I have seen farmers kill their animals or maim them for life as they try to transfer knowledge they have on handling an issue in one species of animals to another.

I once found a farmer giving a six-month calf the remnant of a cough syrup that her doctor had prescribed for the child.

The farmer told me since the child had been coughing and the calf was also coughing, the medicine should work for the calf just as it had for the child.

This may sound logical but it is a hopeless intervention when the biological species’ differences between a cow and a human being are considered.

For starters, the antibiotic contained in the syrup would be broken down to medically useless molecules in the rumen of the cow.

Second, before being inactivated by some of the micro-organisms in the calf’s rumen, the antibiotic would kill the useful but vulnerable bacteria in the rumen of the calf causing an abnormal environment in the organ.

In simple terms, the medication would cause an additional illness to the calf. One of the most common practices I have seen farmers engaging in is giving their newly calved cows fermented cereal porridge (uji), especially that from maize, millet and sorghum.

In some cases, the farmers even explain to me that the one made from a mixture of all the three grains has the best results.

However, when I enquire from them what results they obtain from feeding the porridge, the answer is often that the cow died, the cow went off feed and later started eating, but does not gain weight or that the cow just became weakly for the rest of its life.

The interesting thing, however, is that farmers who gave the treatment will always have some explanation as to the cause of the unfavourable results.

Some will say the cow ate the placenta while others will blame plastic papers that the cow had apparently eaten in the past.

Well, I would like to share why this practice should stop as it kills cattle. The bad results I have seen are not by chance or complication with any condition existing before the uji treatment. They are a result of the toxic effect of cereal grains in ruminants.

GOOD ENERGY AND WATER SOURCE

In the past week, I have received phone and e-mail questions from three farmers enquiring on the effectiveness of uji treatment in newly-calved cattle to quickly regain their strength, stimulate milk production and accelerate healing.

Owino, who said he works in Kirinyaga and has some cattle there, said the practice is common in the area but he did not believe it is beneficial to the animals. He asked if I could clarify on the issue.

Farmers that I have asked the rationale for giving porridge to cattle and other ruminants after they have given birth had only one explanation, “It is the same food we give to our wives or daughters after they deliver, as advised by doctors.”

One farmer told me he gave the uji to his wife every time she delivered. He did the same with his family dog and both had very good results but he thought their two cows had other problems because they died within three days of feeding on the porridge.

I had visited him to treat his second cow only to find that it had died before my arrival.

Now, I would like every farmer to be a crusader against uji for cattle, sheep and goats. I will tell you why shortly.

Cereal grain flour porridge is a very good energy and water source for any animal. However, the animal being given the food must have a stomach and digestive system biologically made for utilising food with high content of carbohydrates.

In short, it should be a simple stomach animal that directly digests carbohydrates to produce glucose. The glucose is absorbed into the body and provides the much-needed energy that helps in recovery and body activity.

Humans and dogs have digestive systems that efficiently and effectively digest high carbohydrate diets. Little wonder then that the farmer I talked of only had problems with his two cows but his wife and family dog smiled back to health after eating the porridge.

Cows and other ruminants have a complex digestive system comprising of four stomachs namely the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum.

The abomasum is the equivalent of the human simple stomach but it only receives food that has been cleared by the first three stomachs.

High carbohydrate diet, fed to ruminants in large quantities, is a disaster in the rumen. The organ contains billions of micro-organisms of many types, each specialised to digest different types of food or to make some nutrients such as proteins and vitamins.

One of the major processes occurring in the rumen is fermentation, which releases acids and gases. The gases are expelled when the animal belches while the acids are neutralised by the cow’s saliva to maintain an environment suitable for function of the organ and all its beneficial micro-organisms.

UNABLE TO STAND AND LOOKS VERY SICK

When you feed your cow the highly rated uji, the carbohydrates are rapidly fermented by the bacteria specialised in producing lactic acid.

The acid is produced in large amounts that exceed the capacity of the saliva to neutralise it and the rumen environment becomes very acidic.

This starts killing most of the other beneficial micro-organisms and stimulates further activity of the acid producing bacteria. It is a complete takeover of the cow’s fermentation factory to only produce the very harmful acid.

Once the cow can no longer neutralise the acid, the chemical destroys the lining of the rumen and peels it off. The cow loses appetite, the rumen stops moving and the animal starts literally rotting from the inside.

The acid is also absorbed into the body through the broken walls of the rumen, causing damage to other organs. This condition is now called lactic acidaemia, meaning lactic acid in the blood.

The general disease seen in ruminants after eating high carbohydrate diet is called lactic acidosis. The animal becomes unable to stand and looks very sick.

Most cases of severe lactic acidosis die within four days of eating the high carbohydrate diet. Moderate cases recover but may have permanent damage to the rumen and fail to ever thrive again. Some animals develop abscesses in the rumen wall and the liver and later die from the abscesses.

Mild cases of the disease may recover within one week if no additional carbohydrates are fed during the recovery period.

Should you find your cow or any ruminant has eaten high carbohydrate diet of any form, observe the animal and report to your veterinary service provider as soon as the animal loses appetite. Prompt treatment may save the animal.

As first aid, feed the animal on roughage such as dry grass or hay and keep it away from any carbohydrates such as grains, cereal products or tubers.

Some farmers say they have been advised by veterinary service providers to give cereal flour porridge to their recently calved cattle.

It is unlikely a veterinary doctor or veterinary paraprofessional would give such advice. You should report any veterinary service provider giving you such advice to the Kenya Veterinary Board, via 0722305253 because you will probably be dealing with a fraudster.