author(s)
Balamurugan K, Dinesh NM and Partheban P

abstract
The present study was carried out in an organized stud farm to evaluate the factors involved in umbilical hernia of foals in South India (Karnataka) from 2002 to 2020. A total of 1067 live foals were included in the study. Seventy nine foals were diagnosed with umbilical hernia either at birth or developed later in few weeks which accounted to an average occurrence rate of 7.3%. Gender wise analysis revealed that fillies (10.1%) carried highly significant risk for umbilical hernia than colts (4.5%). As this study was confined to a single stud farm, involvement of dams and sires were also considered which revealed that sires had significant risk of producing foals with hernia ranging from 3.7% to 13.1%. Further analysis revealed that twenty mares had more than two foals affected with umbilical hernia and even two mares individually produced three foals which had hernia out of eight foals in their lifetime. All the umbilical hernias were managed with open method of herniorrhaphy without any complications and recurrence.