Surveillance on Key Wellbeing Problems and Management Activity of Equine in Ambo Town, West Shewa Zone, Ethiopia

摘要

Working horses, mules and donkeys play a central role in the livelihoods of many people IN Ethiopia.Working animals are livelihood assets and they maintain or enhance livelihood in Country. A cross sectionalstudy was conducted between November 2014 to April 2015 on randomly selected working equine to observemanagement practices and welfare problems of working animals for the presence of lesions on different partsof the body and body condition status at Ambo town, western Ethiopia. 384 working animals were screenedfor various lesions on the skin. Among the studied animals, 29.7% (horses), 32.3% (donkeys) and 38% (mules)were thoroughly examined for work type, status of body condition and lesion on animal body. From a total ofexamined horses, mule and donkeys, 310 (80.7%) were lesion prevalence in their body parts in the study area.The variation in prevalence of lesion in horses, mule and donkeys were not significant (P>0.05). On the otherhand, 54.4% were draught and 45.6% were pack animals and (28.4%), 50.5% and 21.1% revealed a poor, mediumand good body condition score, respectively. Lesions due to lack of good management system such as: backsore (13.5%), belly (12%), limb tethering (8.1%), Tail base (5.2%) and breast (9.1%) were most frequentlyobserved. Tail base lesions were significantly associated with pack type of work (p < 0.05); whereas back sorewere associated with draught type of work (p < 0.05). In conclusion, even though owners take care of theiranimals, a great number of lesions associated with work type and body condition were noted. This findingshows that working animals experience multiple welfare problems in the study area. A broad equine healthprograms should be implemented in order to tackle the widespread problem in the study area in particular andin nation in general.