The Case of a Goat that Ate Plastic

The Case of a Goat that Ate Plastic

Abe V Rotor She was pregnant too long. And she was getting thinner. So the owner sent for the butcher. Guess what we discovered. The bloated stomach was stuffed with plastics. Yes, plastics which we use for wrappers and bags. I cannot imagine how and why the animal devoured plastics other than grass that it normally eats. But one thing sure about goats is that they are not choosy when it comes to food. Other that the wide range of plant species they eat, they are also omnivorous, devouring sweet to salty, oily to spicy food. Virtually anything humans eat is also palatable to goats. There are cellophanes used for sweets like bocayo, peanut butter, and candies, thin plastic bags for retailing bagoong alamang, patis, toyo, cooking oil, ice drop and the like. The largest are convenient bags for meat, fish, soft drinks, fruit juices, cooked food, and the like. Some of these materials still bore traces of the generic and trade name of the products, which we supposed have been recently ingested. Plastics earlier ingested were discolored but nonetheless are whole and intact. As the stomach twists and contracts, the larger plastics envelop the smaller pieces forming a mass stuck up in the rumen like clothes in a overloaded washing machine. The stomach of ruminants is designed to store large amounts of feed, consuming the feeds rapidly with a minimum of chewing before swallowing. This reduces grazing time while it enhances large intake. Then when the animal is resting, the raw ingesta is brought out for re-mastication during which digestive enzymes are mixed before it is swallowed again for final digestion. Imagine the stomach walls incessantly contracting, grinding and squeezing, the walls in peristalsis. Digestive enzymes dissolve solid materials into pulp called chyme, a composite thick soup that later goes to the small intestine where the nutrients are assimilated by numerous, tiny finger-like protrusions called villi. The remaining material then moves to the large intestines, retained for sometime before it is finally excreted as feces. No digestive enzyme – not even gastric acid – is powerful enough to break plastics. And there is no effect even how long the material is subjected this natural solvent. Why does the stomach retain the plastic materials? We know that goats like other ruminant animals such as sheep and cattle, and wild herbivores for that matter, like zebra and gazelle, have very efficient digestive systems, otherwise they would not subsist on high-fiber food – grass and roughage. Food is retained in their chambered stomach much longer than food in the simple stomach of man, fowls, and pigs. It is no wonder that the excreta of ruminants yields well digested fiber. This is not the case in the excreta of animals with simple digestive system such as pigs. Even birds and chicken which can break up shells and stones in their gizzard cannot fully digest cellulose. Perhaps the only creature, which is superior to ruminants in cellulose digestion, is the termite. Termites have living protozoa in their stomach that break up wood cellulose and its tough form, lignin. Without this symbiont, termites will certainly starve and die. The implication of this discovery then is that no digestive enzyme – not even gastric acid is powerful enough to break the cellulose in plastics. This is a classical proof of the non-biodegradability of plastics. Can’t ruminants eliminate unwanted materials in their digestive system either by regurgitation or excretion? In the first place the movement of the stomach and its chambers – rumen, reticulum and omasum - unlike those of the true stomach and intestines, are not governed by the central nervous system. Thus the mechanism of rumination is involuntary. It is the coarseness of the feed that stimulates the walls of the rumen to contract so that the material is brought out for re-mastication. Animals, which feed on soft and non-fibrous diet like alfalfa, ruminate less than those depending on roughage. Plastics Camouflage Appetite It is likely that the rumen is lined with plastic materials which does not create sufficient stimulation to expel the ingesta for re-mastication. The other effect is that the animal experiences false fullness which camouflages natural appetite. It means that because the animal is not hungry, it eats less and as a consequence becomes undernourished. Thus the goat that ate plastic appeared bloated and emaciated. But this does not discount the possibility of slow poisoning either due to the plastic or secondary metabolites. The other reason why goats cannot eliminate the plastics through excretion is obvious. Unlike large livestock, their feces are dry and nodular, barely the size of coffee beans. It does not mean to say that larger ruminants are safe from clogging of plastics in their digestive system. I have received reports of similar incidents where cattle suffer of the same symptoms. It is would be interesting that extensive researches be conducted on the problems of plastics ingestion. The first completely synthetic man-made plastic – Bakelite – does not burn, melt or dissolve in ordinary solvents. As an additive it makes almost any material strong, durable and light. _____________________________________________________________ What is plastic? How are plastics differentiated? 1. The first plastic was made by Alexander Parkes in 1862 for whom it was named – Parkesine. Actually it was an organic material derived from cellulose that once heated could be molded, retaining its shape when cooled. Because of its high cost of production it was shelved until the later part of the 19th century when celluloid made a debut as replacement of ivory in billiard balls. To prevent the highly volatile celluloid to explode, camphor was added leading to the development of thermoplastics. 2. Soon the first completely synthetic man-made plastic was formulated by a New York chemist, Leo Baekeland, and the product was name Bakelite, a material which does not burn, boil, melt, or dissolve in any commonly available acid or solvent, and would retain its shape and form under any circumstance. Bakelite could be added to almost any material making it more durable, light, heat-resistant and shatterproof. War machinery and automobiles made use of this new product to a great advantage. 3. Other forms of plastics were discovered. These include rayon, man-made silk, and cellophane, the first glass-clear, flexible and waterproof plastic. These materials have many uses today. 4. By 1920 “plastic craze” spread out. Among the industry leaders was DuPont which developed nylon, replacing animal hair in toothbrush. By 1940 the world saw the development of acrylic, polyethylene, and many more polymers, which replaced natural materials such as cotton, fiber, wood and steel. 5. DuPont later discovered Teflon, which is used as lining of cooking utensils because it is acid proof, heat resistant and slippery. 6. Dow on the other hand, came up with another plastic – polyvinylidene chloride, better known as Saran, a perfect material for food packaging and storage. 7. Polyethylene was introduced in 1933. Polyethylene is currently the largest volume plastic the world uses in making soda and milk bottles, grocery bags, and plastic food storage containers. This is the kind of plastic the goat ate and made her sick. 8. There is virtually no end to the discovery of other forms of plastics. We have plastic putty developed by Velcro. This plastic is very much like rubber but rebounds 25 percent higher than normal rubber ball. Its property of not being able to maintain a constant shape, is compensated by its high flexibility, stretching many times its length without tearing. Initially it is used in the manufacture of toys, but many potential used are seen.