Observation on major welfare problems of equine in Meskan district, Southern Ethiopia

Solomon Mekuria and Rahmeto Abebe

Hawassa University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine P.O. Box, 005 Hawassa, Ethiopia
solmk2000@yahoo.com

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted between March to June 2006 to assess the major welfare problems and work types of equine at  Meskan district of Southern Ethiopia. Four hundred ninety seven working equines comprising 381 donkeys, 107 horses and 9 mules was observed, for the presence of lesions on different parts of the body, ectoparasites, abnormal mucous membrane and body condition status.

Among observed animals the percentages were 50.9, 37.4, 5.2 and 6.4 used for draught, pack, ridden and other type of work, respectively. It was observed that the proportion was different between horses (75.7%) and donkeys (44.1%) in draught type of work, where as only 0.93% of horses as compared to 48.6% of donkeys were engaged in pack type of work. Across all species about 96.4% of animals had a poor body condition score of less than 2 (Six point scale; 1: very thin and 5: very fat); whereas 59.8% of horses and 16.3% of donkeys were in poor condition. Skin lesions were observed and compared within species, age group and body condition score. Among lesions, donkeys which were engaged in pack type of work demonstrated higher prevalence in tail/tail base lesions than horse with proportions of 16.0 vs. 0.9% and in ectoparasites (37.3 vs 21.5%), whereas 79.4% vs. 3.4% of lip lesions were observed in horses and donkeys. Based on community interviews the majority of users or owners did not provide water, feed and shelter at the working site.

The results of this study indicated that equines were experiencing multiple welfare problems associated with inaccessible water, feed and shelter at the working site and animals were suffering from several lesions. 

Key words: assessment, body condition, health parameters, work type

Introduction

Equines are widely distributed through out the world. In developed countries, small numbers are kept as pets, as companions, or for work, in occupational therapy program (Alujia and Lopez 1991). There are an estimated 90 million equines in the developing world, with highest population concentration in Central Asia and North and East Africa (FAO 2003).  Over 95% of all donkeys and mules and 60% of all horses are found in developing countries (Fielding 1991), where they are kept mainly for work.

Poor infrastructure and very rugged topography in many part of rural Ethiopia have made transportation by vehicle inaccessible. Hence farmers use alternative means like draught animals especially donkeys and horses to combat transportation problems. In rural and peri-urban areas, people rely on equines to transport crops, fuel wood, water, building materials and people by carts or on their back from farms and/or markets to home. If equines are not available, women often have to do the same work (Mohammed 1991). In addition, in some part of the country these draught animals are used for tillage. Farmers generally require animals that are affordable, well adapted and easily replaced. In contrast to cattle, buffalo and camels, which are usually kept for their milk and meats as well as work, whose hides are cured for leather, and even their dung has a number of uses (Pearson 1992), equine by-products are not generally used except as source of energy, therefore cheaper to replace them than other large animals. 

Although in many countries including Ethiopia horses, donkeys and mules are kept mostly for transportation; there are few areas where equine meat and milk are consumed.  In some areas of North West Kenya and Southern Ethiopia, donkey meat is a delicacy and the milk believed to treat whooping cough (Fred and Pascal 2006). 

People in most peri-urban centers hire horses, mules and donkeys for commercial purposes such as carting goods and people and fetching water by fee. However, Mohammed (1991) reported that in Ethiopia the daily hire charge is the same irrespective of the load carried or the distance traveled.

Despite their uses, the husbandry practices of working equines are poor. Some methods of hobbling to restrain equines cause discomfort and inflict wounds (Alujia and Lopez 1991;  Mohammed 1991) and poorly designed harnesses or yokes that may be heavy and ragged have an effect on the animals health and safety. In addition, animals are suffering from lack of shelter from sun, rain or biting insects at markets or working sites. Moreover, donkeys and horses, unlike oxen low priority is given when it comes to feed allocation.  In many cases, much attention by local communities, professionals and institutions is directed towards cattle than equines, because of meat and milk provision (personal observation).

Long working hours and difficult conditions are experienced by donkeys and horses working in the area. Animals are often engaged in work for long hours and when get free, they are left to browse and feed on garbage.  These have a potential to affect negatively their welfare and quality of life.  This was justified by low number of donkeys presented annually to the clinic compared to other domestic animals, 270 donkeys vs. 20,000 head of other domestic animals, between 1987 and 1988  (Yilma et al 1991).  

This misuse, mistreatment and lack of veterinary care for equines have contributed enormously to early death, majority of which currently have working life expectancy of 4 to 6 years.  However, in countries where animal welfare is in practice, the life expectancy of equine reaches up to 30 years (Svendsen 1981; Fred and Pascal 2006). The term "fit and feeling good" is to illustrate that animal welfare includes both emotional and physiological components. Physical wellbeing includes health and is affected by injury and disease while emotional wellbeing encompasses minimizing negative mental states such as fear, pain and distress as well as maximizing positive states such as happiness and comfort. A third component which overlaps with the previous two is naturalness and in the context of working animal welfare, this can be described as expression of normal behavior (Webster et al 2004).

Taking into account the aforementioned basic welfare issues of equine, welfare assessment was conducted in Meskan district of  Southern Nations, Nationalities and People Regional State in Ethiopia with the objectives of identifying the types of works carried out by equines and to estimate the type and the magnitude of welfare problems in the study area. 

Materials and methods  

Study area

The study was conducted in Meskan district, which is one of the 12 districts of Guraghe Zone in Southern Nations, Nationalities and People Regional State (SNNPRS), Ethiopia. The district consists of 40 peasant associations (PA's), which are the smallest administrative units in Ethiopia. The district is located 130 kms away from Addis Ababa, in SW direction. The area is situated at midland with altitude of 1800 meter above sea level and exhibit a bimodal rainfall system (long and short rainy season). The long rainy season extends from June to September, whereas the short rainy season ranges from mid February to the end of April. There are three main equine markets in the district namely: Enseno, Hamus Gebeya and Butajira town. Three different ethnic groups inhabit in the area namely, Guraghe, Mareko and Silti. Their living style similar and depends on agriculture, using mixed livestock-crop production. The agricultural products are usually transported to the local markets and/or center of district mainly by working equines. Topographically the area is characterized by massive mountainous terrain in the western border of the district, whereas the eastern part is dominated by plane land. The maximum annual temperature does not exceed 26^oC and mean minimum temperature varies from 11.2- 19.2^oC. 

Study design and animals

The type of study employed was a cross-sectional investigation exclusively using equines in the selected area. The study was conducted from March to June 2006. Observations were carried out on study animals selected randomly from the study population regardless of age and species, until approximately fifteen percent of the populations were represented. Questionnaire was also administered to animal owners to collect relevant information about equine welfare issues in the study area.  The study population were equines found in 20 Peasant Associations of the district which posses a 3000 equines. Approximately fifteen percent (15%) of the study population (497) was selected randomly during study period.

Methods used to assess health and physical status of equines

There was training for two assessors before they start data collection as how to observe and collect data. Then two trained assessors and handlers visited each randomly selected animal.  One assessor carried out assessment and the data recorded by the second assessor, these roles were alternated between the two assessors. Prior to the assessment, consent was requested from animals owners, if the owner is not willing the next owner asked.  Assessment carried out at field level, market and around homestead on the daytime. Animals were allowed to stand for 5-10 minutes after being held by head collar and lead rope before assessment began.  Initially general descriptions were recorded for each animal including work type, sex, species and age.  Following this, different parameters were recorded such as body condition score and mucous membrane color change were assessed including body lesions were then recorded with regard to severity, size and anatomical location. Assessment of each animal took between five and ten minutes and without causing major interruption of equine routine work.   

Based on the types of work animals were categorized as draught, pack, ridden and others. “Draught” animals are those used for transport of goods and people by carts. “Pack” animals are those used for transport of goods by pack. “Ridden” animals are those used by owners for non-tourist ridding, whereas “others” category includes foals and non-functional animals (Pritchard et al 2005).  

The scoring of body condition of the selected animals and lesions observed on different regions of the body was recorded based on the criteria described by Carroll and Huntington (1988) as cited by Pritchard et al (2005). Body condition assessment was done by looking the animal from both sides and the hind quarter without touching the animals and scored as 0,1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for very thin, thin, fair, good, fat and very fat, respectively as shown in Table below.

Lesions of any size and severity at the external corners (commissures) of the mouth, where the bit would lie were considered as lesions of the lips. Scars, hairless skin and broken skin were also included.  It was scored ‘0’ if there was no lesion and ‘1’ if lesion was present. Lesions on the limbs caused by tethering/hobbling were considered, if any kind of hair loss, scars, healed or fresh lesion appeared at any point along the length of the limb horizontally recorded as hobbling problems (Pritchard et al 2005; Dennison et al 2006).

Mucous membrane of the mouth was assessed based on the color of mucous membrane of upper gum. Pale, yellow, white, or purple color were considered as abnormal, whereas pinkish was taken as normal. Age of the animal was estimated based on the observation of the animal’s front teeth (incisors). Accordingly, the study animals were categorized into three age groups as less than 5 years, between 5 to 15 years and above15 years. Wounds of skin and deeper tissues were assessed according to the area, depth and location on the body regions.  Only lesions that cover a qualifying area were considered as lesion and recorded. Qualifying area is a lesion larger on all sides than a 2x2cm square or 1x4cm rectangle or 2.3cm diameter circle (Dennison et al 2006). 

The observed animals were considered positive for ectoparasites when it was found to harbor at least one external parasite of any species of ectoparasites (tick, lice, flea, mites or nits).   In addition to the above observations, a semi-structured questionnaire was administered to the selected 114 equine owners to generate relevant information about the service rendered and welfare issues of working equines in the study area. 

Results  

Species, sex, age groups and work type distributions

During the study period a total of 497 equine that comprises 381 donkeys, 107 horses and 9 mules were thoroughly observed for the presence of lesions on different parts of the body, ectoparasites, abnormal mucous membrane and body condition status. However, mules were excluded during comparison of each observed variable against species, due to their small size.  

Two hundred thirty three, 178 and 85 animals were stallions, mares and gelding, respectively.  Thirty percent of equines were under five years of age, 53.3% were between 5 and 15 years and 15.5% were over 15 years of age. Observation indicated that proportion of work type out of the total animals sampled revealed that 50.91%, 37.42%, 5.23% and 6.44% were used for draught, pack, ridden and other purposes, respectively (Table 2).

When compared work type proportion against the respective species, a difference was observed between horse and donkeys with proportion of 75.7% and 44.1% in draught type of work, accordingly. On the other hand, larger proportion of donkeys (48.6%) was used for pack than horses (0.93%). Animals involved in ridden type of work were entirely horses.  There was a variation among different age groups in draught work type, where age group between 5 and 15 years had 61.9% when compared with 30.9% and 50.7% in age group less than 5 years and greater than 15 years, accordingly. There was also an association between sex and work type; a higher proportion of stallions were engaged in draught type of work than mares (70.8% vs. 17.4%), whereas more mares were involved in pack than stallions (68% vs. 21.9%). A higher proportion of gelding animals were used for draught work (67.1%) and small numbers were involved in pack (15.3%) and ridden (12.9%) work type.  

Body condition assessment

The observation on the body condition of the animals were categorized into three, where body condition score 0, 1 and 2 grouped as "thin", body condition score 3  as "medium" and body condition score 4 and 5  categorized as "good" and  showed that 26.2%, 70.2% and 3.6% of animals were thin (poor), medium and good body condition, accordingly. At  species level there was a significant difference (p<0.01) observed between horses and donkeys, where more horses (59.8%) were in a very thin condition than donkeys (16.3%). Variations in body condition were also recorded among animals with different age categories and work type. All animals above 15 years (48.1%) were in thin and very thin body condition as compared to 24.9% in age group 5-15 years and 17.8% in age group less than 5 years of age. Concerning work type, draught animals showed high proportion of thin body condition (30.4%) compared to pack (23%), ridden (26.9%) and other (9.4%) animals as shown in Table 3. 

Assessment of health parameters

Observation shows that a high proportion of animals (94.7%) had tether/hobble lesions on limbs, whereas 52.5%, 20.1%, 33.8% and less than 15% animals had abnormal mucous membranes, lip lesions, ectoparasites and different types of skin lesions, accordingly. Differences were observed between donkeys and horses in most health parameter observations with the exception of abnormal mucous membrane and some skin lesions (neck, wither and spine, ribs/flank and hindquarters) as indicated in Table 4.  

Lip lesion and hobbling were found in both species, though the proportion was higher in horses (79.4% and 99.1%) than in donkeys (3.4% and 93.4%). Sixteen percent and 37.3% of donkeys and 0.9% and 21.5% of horses had tail/tail base lesion and ectoparasites, respectively. It was also shown that the occurrence of lip lesions was associated with work type but not with age of the animals as shown in Tables 5 and 6.

Ridden and draught types of work animals were more likely affected by lip lesion than pack animals. Tether/hobble lesions on the other hand, were associated with both work types and age of the animals, where animals engaged in ridden work and aged  group above 15years were more likely to be affected as compared with others (Table 5 and 6). 

As shown in Table 5, most of skin lesions observed were not associated with work type except lesions on tail/tail base were a higher proportion (26%) in pack animals than draught, ridden and other work type. As it was observed in Table 6 with the exception of lesions on wither/spine and tail/tail base, all other skin lesions were not associated with the age of the animals. Lesions on both wither/spine and tail/tail base regions were observed more commonly in animals above 15 years of age group than other age groups shown in Table 6.   

As indicated in Table 5 and 6 both work types and age of animals were associated with mucous membrane abnormality. It was shown that relatively higher proportion of draught animals (62%) had pale/white mucous membranes compared with pack (47.3%) and ridden (46.2%) animals. On the other hand, a higher proportion of animals above 15 years of age (94.8%) had pale/white mucous membrane compared with animals 5-15years (60%) and under 5 years of age (20.4%). The prevalence of ectoparasites was associated with body condition, work types  and age group of the animals.

Questionnaire survey results

One hundred fourteen animal owners from different peasant association were randomly selected, and interviewed to collect relevant information on equine welfare issues and traditional management system. Out of the interviewed, about 84.2% households had one equine and 6.1% had no equine at all. The remaining 9.65% of households had two or more equines (Figure 1).  

The data collected on the traditional management system of equines indicated that all animal owners do provide water, feed and shelter to equines at home. Only few were known to provide water (4.38%) and feed (10.5%) at market or working sites, but no one provide shelter as shown in Table 7.

Discussion  

The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of general health parameters and body lesions indicators of poor welfare in equines in the study area. Issues of concern can then be prioritized in terms of welfare significant to animals and further research conducted. Once risk factors associated with each issue have been identified, methods of decreasing or eliminating the effects of these risks can be incorporated into specific interventions that will be planned and implemented (Dennison et al 2006). In this study, it was appreciated that the majority of equines observed (93.6%) were used for work, mainly for transporting goods and people, by cart, packs or ridding. Only 6.4% were either infant or non-functional due to some health problems. This observation was in agreement with Blackeway (1994), Pritchard et al (2005) and Dinka et al (2006) that equines were kept mainly for transportation than meat or milk production. Donkeys were dominant followed by horses; the population distribution of equine indicates that these animals are highly needed by most rural people for transportation of goods by pack and cart due to their sturdy nature and manageable behavior.

The study revealed a wide spectrum of welfare issues on the study animals, most of which were significantly associated with the assumed risk factors. The observation on the body condition of the animals showed that 26.2% and 70.2% were under thin and medium body condition category. The well-fed group was only 3.6% which could be an indicator of management short-comings associated with poor nutrition and/or health care (Table 3). Heavy work burden coupled with nutritional deficiencies and internal parasites might be the reason for high proportion of thin and very thin animals.  Negative correlation between body condition and burden of internal parasites was reported by another work in Ethiopia (Ayele et al 2006). Moreover, poor people who cannot afford to provide supplementary feeds to their equines might be the reason. Horses demonstrated a significantly higher proportion of lip lesions (79.4%) than donkeys (3.4%). This might be associated with the bit was used for leading and braking of draught and ridden horses. Nawaz et al (2007) supports this finding, where the presence of lip lesions: size of superficial lesion and size of skin broken lesion measurements were found to be closely related to the bit characteristics. A bit with characteristics  of  jointed  bar, sharp projection, dirty and rusty bar, ring bar connection and ring type were found to be significantly (p<0.01) related to lip lesion. Tether/hobble lesions on the limbs were highly prevalent across all species, work types and age groups, although there was a significant difference with in each of these factors. It was observed that tether/hobble lesions were more common in horses (99.5%), ridden type of work (100%) and above 15years of age group (100%). Observation in this study area shows that horses were kept usually by tethering / hobbling around homestead. As the result, all horses inevitably experienced hobbling lesion at least once in their life. It was also mentioned by Alujia and Lopez (1991) and Mohammed (1991) that some method of hobbling to restrain equine cause discomfort and even wounds. Pritchard et al (2005) also reported similar findings where ridden animals showed significantly higher (P< 0.01) prevalence of tether/hobble lesions than those doing draught and pack works. 

This study demonstrated that significantly higher proportions of draught animals were thin and had pale/white mucous membrane compared with animals engaged in pack, ridden and  other work types.  This may be due to heavier workload on draught animals compared to others as these animals were working for long hours per day without provision of sufficient feed because animals were usually provided insufficient feed at homes only before or after work. 

Lesions on the breast/shoulder and girth/belly were observed more frequently on draught horses than donkeys. This can be attributed to ill-fitting and ragged harness were used commonly in horses during carting and ridding. On the other hand, pack donkeys had a significantly higher proportion of tail /tail base lesions than horses. These lesions were usually induced by excessive rubbing on this site by crupper (rubber rope) that passes under the tail of donkeys during packing, where there would be frequent movement and rubbing; as the packed animals move forward. Blackeway (1994), Pritchard et al (2005) and Swann (2006) reported similar findings, when pack animals move long distance and frequently, the chance of tail/tail base lesion occurrence was very high.  The prevalence of ectoparasites was significantly higher in donkeys than horses. This might be donkeys were the most neglected animals in Ethiopia, receiving less attention by owners and kept under poor management conditions.  A significantly higher prevalence of lesions on withers /spine and tail/tail base were observed in animals above 15 years of age group than animals in other age categories. This might be associated with prolonged and frequent exposure of working animals in work life time and owners were not taking attention to wound management.  The current study was in agreement with Demelash and Moges (2006), where only 21.4% of the respondents take wounded horses to the nearby veterinary clinic while 8.7% treat with medications purchased from the local market, 27.5% take to a local healer, 2.2% treat with medicinal plants and 40.2% do nothing.  Shelima et al (2007) made similar observation, where 38.3% of wounded horses treated, using traditional medicine and 36.2% of wounded horses had no chance to go to veterinary clinic or 17.7%  due to financial constraint. 

Dinka et al (2007) reported that the majority of the respondents (98.6%) provided feed at different frequencies in a day. Accordingly, 46% of the respondents provided feed for horses once daily while 24%, 24% and 3% of the respondents gave twice, three and four times daily, respectively.  The type and amount of feed fed requirement varies according to the workload of the horses (Harris 1999). Anderson and Dennis (1994) suggested that animals, which are being used year round for transport, need more feeds than animals that are only worked for short periods seasonally.  In this study 100% respondents used to provide available feed mainly grass and few cereal by-products at home, however very few (10.5%) respondents provide feed at market or working sites.  The finding probably was a good indicator about the level of awareness of equine users or owners, where less attention was given to animals at working site. 

In addition, it was reported that for draught animals, shelters should be a sloping floor to allow run off to keep them dry and clean, and dung should be removed daily to reduce the problem of flies. Houses need to be periodically disinfected and clean bedding provided (Matthewman et al 1993). Similarly, Dinka et al (2007) has found that carthorses were 42.0% and 31.4% owners used an open barn with shade and closed shelter, respectively. The previous finding was in agreement with this study, where there was 100%, respondents provide shelter at home during night to protect from predators or other factors. The community also clean dung daily and provide clean beddings such as dry grass or wheat straw; but none of the respondents did show up the importance of provision of shelter at working site/market site. 

Conclusions  

• The results of this study indicated that many of the equines working in the area were experiencing multiple welfare problems.

  
  

• Apart from the occurrence of body lesion, attention that was given to provide feed, water and shelter at working site was very limited, which was a good indication about the level of animals owners awareness.

  
  

• Further investigation into the risk factors associated with each welfare issue is required before an intervention is made to improve the welfare problems of these working animals.

  
  

• The findings will be used as benchmark to start intervention towards improvement of welfare problems. 

Acknowledgement

The data on the welfare assessment in this paper was collected and funded by the Brooke Hospital for Animals in Butajira in 2006. The work was led by Tania Dennison, Amro Hassan and Shabir Mir, and administrative and logistical support was provide by the Butajira Government Veterinary Office staff.

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Received 17 October 2009; Accepted 20 January 2010; Published 1 March 2010

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