Study on the Major Defects That Causes Sheep and Goat Skins Rejection in Bahir Dar Tanning Industry, Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross sectional study was conducted from November 2014 to April 2015 with the objective of assessing and determining the prevalence of major defects that caused skin rejection at Bahir Dar tannery which is located at about five kilo meters south of Bahir Dar to the Blue Nile Falls. From the examined 400 (200 sheep and 200 goat) pickled skins 114 (28.5%) of skins were rejected. Most skins were grouped under grade five (27.8%) and six (34.5%) in both species. 30(25.2%) ekek (itching) and 17(25.0%) flying defect was the major causes of down grading and /or rejection of shoat skins at pickled level followed by scar 59(14.8%), scratch 57(14.2%), poor substance 40(10.0%), pox 29(7.2%) and putrefaction 20(5.0%). The overall prevalence of sheep and goat skin defects was 100%. There was no any pure skin that is why grade one and two were excluded from grading of pickled skins. High rejection were recorded from extra large-sized skins (30.0%), followed by large- sized (29.0%), small-sized (22.0%) and medium-sized (17.0%). The result showed that 26.5% of goat skins and 22.5% sheep skins were rejected. There were statistically significant variations in the occurrence of the defects between the shoat skins. Ekek (27.5%) and flying defect (17.0%) were highly prevalent in sheep skins where as scratch (14.2%) was prevalent on goat skins. The occurrence of ekek was statistically different between species, 110(27.5%) higher in sheep than 16.5% (33/200) in goats. There was also statistically significant difference in the prevalence of scratch between shoats' skins. Since most Ethiopian skins are brought from homesteads, defects occur due to careless flaying and storage, diseases and mal management of practice shoat. Therefore, these defects should be controlled by drug treatment, creating awareness about the importance of skins at regional and national level.