Prevalence of External Injuries in Working Equines in Mehal Saint Woreda of South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia

Journal of Veterinary Advances Prevalence of External Injuries in Working Equines in Mehal Saint Woreda of South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia Satessa G. D. and Lemma F. A. J Vet Adv 2014, 4(8): 654-660 DOI: 10.5455/jva.20140908123013 Online version is available on: www.grjournals.com

ISSN: 2251-7685 SATESSA AND LEMMA. Prevalence of External Injuries in Working Equines in Mehal Saint Woreda of South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia Satessa G. D. and Lemma F. A. Original Article University of Gondar, Faculty of Veterinary Medicne, Department of Veterinary Pharmacy nad Biomedical Science, Ethiopia. Abstract A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2011 to January, 2012 to determine the prevalence, and causes of external injuries in equines in and Mehal Saint Woreda of South Wollo Zone. A total of 699 equines were included in the study out comprising 373 (53.4%) horses, 319 (45.6%) donkeys and 7(1%) mules. This study revealed an overall prevalence of external injuries in working equines (horses, donkeys and mules) to be 45.49%. The prevalence of external injuries in different species was found to be 18.02% for horse, 27.2% for donkey and 0.29% for mule. Higher prevalence of external injuries was recorded in male animals (43.9%) than female ones (1.6%). Moreover, the occurrence of external injuries was higher in equines used for transport of load (36.6%) than those used for transport of people (8.91%). The distribution rate of external injuries among animals of different body condition was studied and the highest rate was recorded in animals with medium body condition (17.59%) followed by those with poor (10.88%), good (2.28%) and very poor (0.57%) body conditions. Statistically significant difference (p 0.05) in the occurrence of external injuries was noted among working equines of different species, sex groups, different functions, and those with different body conditions. In this study the causes of external injuries were identified and the highest proportion of external injuries in horse was caused by improper harnessing (6.9%) followed by infectious diseases (3%) with the lowest rate being due to biting (0.3%) and unknown causes (0.3%). Likewise, the highest prevalence in donkey was also attributed to improper harnessing (10.4%) followed by overloading (8.4%) with the lowest rate due to nail piercing (0.6%) and biting (0.6%). On the contrary, external injuries were observed to be caused only by improper harnessing (0.14%) and falling (0.14%) in mules. In general, improper harnessing, infectious diseases and overloading were the major causes of external injuries in the working equines of the area. Keywords: Mehal sayint, external injury, prevalence, working equines. Corresponding author: University of Gondar, Faculty of Veterinary Medicne, Department of Veterinary Pharmacy nad Biomedical Science, Ethiopia. Received on: 19 Feb 2014 Revised on: 12 Aug 2014 Accepted on: 20 Aug 2014 Online Published on: 30 Aug 2014 654 J. Vet. Adv., 2014, 4(8): 654-660

PREVALENCE OF EXTERNAL INJURIES IN WORKING EQUINES IN Introduction The equine population of the world was reported to be 122.4 million with 40 million donkeys, 15 million mules and 43.3 million horses. In the distribution pattern, 98% of all donkeys, 97% of all mules and 60% of all horses were noted to be found in developing countries (Fielding, 1991). The number of equines in Africa was in the range of 17.6 million comprising 11.6 million donkeys, 2.3 mullion mules and 3.7 million horses (Starkey and Starkey, 1997). Ethiopia possessed approximately half of Africa s equines population with 37%, 58% and 46% of all Africa, donkeys, horses and mules, respectively (FAO, 1996). Equids play an important role in the transportation of food products, fodder, fuel wood, agricultural inputs, and construction and waste materials. Equine provides cheap and viable transport system in both rural and urban area. It provides the best alternative in a place where the road network is insufficiently developed, or the terrain is rugged and mountainous and in cities where narrow streets prevents easy delivery of merchandise (Feseha, 1997). Equines are important animals to the resource poor communities in Ethiopia, providing traction power and transport services. It also provides urban dwellers with opportunity of income generation (Wilso, 1991). In Ethiopia, the use of equines for transportation will continue for years to come because of rugged terrain characteristics inaccessible for modern road transportation facilities as well as the absence of well-developed modern transport networks and prevailing low economic status of the community (Mengistu, 2003). In the country as a whole, donkeys provide pack services carrying over fifteen kinds of commodities weighting 60-100 kg and covering distance of 15-20 km for duration of 4-5 hours. The role of donkeys in diversification of sources of income in rural areas is highlighted in Tigray and Rift Vally areas where their contributions in terms of fire wood trade to family income was found to be in the range 156-1404 Ethiopian Birr annually (US $ = 6.3) (Feseha et al., 2004). Although equines play a significant role in the economy of the country, the government livestock development programmes and those of aid agencies are aimed towards increasing meat, milk, and egg and wool production. Equines have been completely neglected and omitted from the natural livestock development programmes. This is because the contribution of equines power in the agricultural system and their role in the production is not yet well recognized and magnified (Belay, 2005). Due to the minimum management attention given to equines particularly in countries like Ethiopia, they are prone to a number of diseases. The worst problem in Ethiopia are malnutrition, early death due to parasitic infestation and acute back sores due to total lack of any types of saddle or protection for the donkeys back from the load it is forced to carry (Svendsen,1997). Although there are large number of working equine in Mehal Sayit, information on the magnitude, distribution and predisposing factors to equines injuries is lacking in this area. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the prevalence, causes and risk factors for external injuries of working equines in Mehal Sayit south Wollo zone. Materials and methods Study Area The study was conducted in Mehal Sayit, which is a small town found in South Wollo of Amhara regional state. Mehal Sayit is located at latitude of 14 0 16 N and longitude of 39 0 26.86 E. It has an altitude of 2800 meter above sea level. The mean annual rainfall is 1500 mm and the mean annual temperature having a minimum and maximum value of 10 0 C and 25 0 C, respectively. In Amhara region, the equine population is estimated to comprise of 2, 438,725. Study Animals and Design A cross-sectional study was conducted from September, 2011 to December, 2011 to determine the prevalence of external injuries in working equines in and around Mehal Sayit woreda. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 699 working equines in the area. Out of the 655 J. Vet. Adv., 2014, 4(8): 654-660

SATESSA AND LEMMA. total equines selected donkeys, horses and mules respectively comprise 45.6% (319), 53.4% (373) and 1.00% (7). All were indigenous breed. Questionnaire survey and physical clinical examination were simultaneously administered. The injured animals were clinically examined. According to Belay (2005) equines less than two years old were considered as young while those more than two years of age as adults. Referring to Yoseph et al., (2001), equines are usually used for work after attaining two years of age. Age of the animals was determined from birth records and dentition characteristics (Payne, 1990). But in our country, birth recording document for the animal is not common; moreover equines are bought from different market areas of the country, which creates difficultly to obtain the birth record of the animal. So, these problems made age determination in equines from birth records difficult. Therefore, the only choice for age determination in equines was dental characteristics during the study. Sampling and Sample Size A simple random sampling technique was employed to select the study animals from working equines Mhale saint woreda. The sample size was calculated by using the formula given by Thrusfiel, 2005 by fixing the confidence level at 95% and assuming expected prevalence of 50% as there was no similar study in the area. N=1.96 2 pexp (1-pexp)/d 2. Where, n= required sample size. Pexp = expected prevalence. D= required precision (usually 0.05). clinically and injures were characterized and causes were identified. According to Demelash and Moges (2006) injuries were classified as sever when there was ulceration involving a pronounced contusion in wider areas, tissue hypertrophy and sever complication. Moderate injuries involved coalition of small wounds with tissue sloughing no complication and hypertrophy and some with chronic courses. Injuries were categorized as mild when they involve only loss of epidermis and superficial layers with no further trauma. All the data collected were entered into Microsoft excel sheet 2007 and later analyzed by using SPSS version of 16 computer software program. Descriptive statistics like percentage and chi-square (χ2) test were used to estimate the prevalence, and association between prevalence of injuries and risk factors, respectively. In all the analyses, confidence level was held at 95% and p < 0.05 was set for statistical significance level. Results This study revealed an overall prevalence of external injuries in working equines (horses, donkeys and mules) to be 45.49%. The prevalence of external injuries in different species was found to be 18.02% for horse, 27.2% for donkey and 0.29% for mule. The variation in prevalence among different species of working equides was statistically significant (p 0.05). Higher prevalence of external injuries was recorded in male animals (43.9%) and female ones (1.6%). This difference between both sexes showed statistically significant difference (p 0.05). Accordingly, the sample size would be 384. But greater number of samples (669 heads of working equines) was included in the study to generate a reliable data. Statistical Analysis A Questionnaire was developed to collect all information that were required including sex, age, species, injury management, function and cause of injuries. Animals were examined physically and 656 J. Vet. Adv., 2014, 4(8): 654-660

PREVALENCE OF EXTERNAL INJURIES IN WORKING EQUINES IN Mehal Sayit Fig. 1: Map of Mehal Sayit of South Wollo. Table 1: Prevalence of external injuries in working equines with respect to species, sex, BCS and functions of the animal. Risk factors Total animal Positive animals Relative χ 2 (p-value) examined prevalence (%) Species Horse 373 126 18.02 46.905 (0.000) Donkey 319 190 27.2 Mule 7 2 0.29 Sex Male 655 307 43.9 7.953 (0.005) Female 44 11 1.6 BCS Very poor 40 40 0.57 3.10 (0.000) Poor 142 139 10.88 657 J. Vet. Adv., 2014, 4(8): 654-660

Overloading (%) Improper harness (%) Inf. Disease (%) Nail piercing (%) Falling (%) Burning (%) Multifactori al (%) Biting (%) Unknown (%) SATESSA AND LEMMA. Medium 345 123 17.59 Good 172 16 2.28 Function People Transport 217 62 8.91 Load Tramsport 482 256 36.6 Total 699 318 45.49 36.341 (0.000) The occurrence of external injuries was higher in equines used for transport of load (36.6%) than those used for transport of people (8.91%). This difference in the prevalence between animals used for different functions was statistically significant (p 0.05). Similarly, the distribution rate of working equine external injuries among animals of different body condition was studied and the highest rate was recorded in animals with medium body condition (17.59%) followed by those with poor (10.88%), good (2.28%) and very poor (0.57%) body conditions. Statistically significant variation (p 0.05) in the prevalence of external injuries was recorded among animals of different body condition scores (Table 1). Table 2: Causes of wound in different species of working equines Causes Species Total (%) Horse 11(1.6) 48(6.9) 21(3.0) 5(0.7) 18(2.6) 5(0.7) 11(1.6) 2(0.3) 2(0.3) 373(53.4) Donkey 59(8.4) 73(10.4) 14(2.0) 4(0.6) 13(1.9) 0 11(1.6) 4(0.6) 12(1.7) 319(45.6) Mule 0 1(0.14) 0 0 1(0.14) 0 0 0 0 7(1) 122 32 22 Total 70 (10) (17.44) 35 (5) 9 (1.3) (4.64) 5 (0.7) (3.2) 6 (0.9) 14 (2) 699 χ 2 =92.147, p-value 0.000. The highest prevalence of external injuries in horse was caused by improper harnessing (6.9%) followed by infectious diseases (3%) with the lowest rate being due to biting (0.3%) and unknown causes (0.3%). Likewise the highest prevalence in donkey was also attributed to improper harnessing (10.4%) followed by overloading (8.4%) with the lowest rate due to nail piercing (0.6%) and biting (0.6%). On the contrary, external injuries were observed to be caused only by improper harnessing (0.14%) and falling (0.14%) in mules (Table 2). Discussion This study indicated that the total prevalence of external injuries in working equines was 53.4%. This figure is relatively lower than other study done in Awassa by Demelash and Moges (2006) which revealed an overall prevalence of 72.1%. This difference might be due to variation in management and health care given to equines. The majority of the poor people who obtain their income by giving transport services with the help of equines give due attention to management and health welfare of their horses in the study area. Consequently, lower prevalence of injuries was recorded in the present study. On the other hand, the present study showed greater overall prevalence than the study done in central Ethiopia by Pearson et al., (2000) who reported a prevalence of 44.0%. Donkeys (27.2%) were highly affected by external injuries compared to horses (18.02%). This contradicts the fact that 658 J. Vet. Adv., 2014, 4(8): 654-660

PREVALENCE OF EXTERNAL INJURIES IN WORKING EQUINES IN donkeys are tolerant to hardship and diversified working conditions. This might be attributed to the low attitude of the society towards donkeys and that they are ignored animals with poor health care services. Consequently, they are supposed to work and transport loads inhumanely. This together with the resulting poor body condition of the animal aggravates the probability of injury in donkeys. A similar report was given by Pearson et al., (2000) in central Ethiopia where overloading contributes enormously to back sore consistent with the present study with 8.4% of injuries in donkey caused by overloading and working. This study also revealed that sex did have a significant effect on the occurrence of external injury in the study area with higher proportion of injured equines being males (43.9%). This might be due to the unavailability of female horses in market in the study area and the owners interest i.e. the a owner s thought that if female equines are worked together with males the working power of the male equines will decrease and create a fight during reproduction among themselves. Thus, males are most frequently used for work than female and are hence highly exposed to injury in the present study area. The distribution rate of external injuries among working equines of different body condition was studied and the highest rate was recorded in animals with medium body condition (17.59%) followed by those with poor (10.88%), good (2.28%) and very poor (0.57%) body conditions. Solomon M. and Rahmeto A., 2006 reported higher incidence of injury in animals with medium body condition (70.2%) followed by those with poor body condition score (26.2%) while the lowest rate was recorded in animals with good body condition (3.6%) consistent with the present study. This relatively higher rate of external injury in animals with medium body condition could be due to the large number of male animals included in the present study. Moreover, animals with medium body conditions represent those animals which are most frequently used for work and hence raising the chance of acquiring injury. The occurrence of external injuries was higher in equines used for transport of load (36.6%) than those used for transport of people (8.91%). The higher occurrence rate of external injuries in the present study in animals used for load transport than those used for transport of people could be due to improper harnessing of animals for load transport while those used for people transport are used with safe and comfortable padding materials and hence reducing the occurrence of external injury. The highest prevalence of external injuries in horse was caused by improper harnessing (6.9%) followed by infectious diseases (3%). Likewise, the highest prevalence in donkey was also attributed to improper harnessing (10.4%) followed by overloading (8.4%). This means that improper harnessing and saddle were the first causes of injuries in the area as the harnessing materials were made from wood and metal materials by local harnessing material makers who didn t consider the prepared materials with the body condition of the animal, movement and balance of the weight. As a result, the materials are unable to distribute the weight equally in either side of the animal leading to injury. Moreover, those traditionally made harnessing materials were kept on the body of the animal and strongly tied by rope. During this time some of the owners didn t put any protective materials while few of them use protective materials on the animals body which are not that much effective in keeping the comfort of the animals and in protecting injury. This finding is consistent with results reported by Pearson et al., (2000) in central Ethiopia and Helen (2001) in Northern Ethiopia that improper harnessing and saddle were major causes of injuries. In the present study infection related injuries were also shown as causes of external injury indicating involvement of bacterial and mycotic pathogens in the injury. Such type of infections were identified and characterized by abscess, ulceration and their typical clinical signs observed in the equines. Similar to this observation, Bojia (1996) and Gobena, (2001) reported that mycotic dermatitis and ulcerative and epizootic lymhangitis were the major infectious skin disease of equines in Ethiopia. Although 19.3% bite related wounds were reported in Awassa by Demelash and Moges (2006). In present study, 0.9% of male equines injuries were due to biting by other animals /donkeys and horses/ no lacerated wound caused by 659 J. Vet. Adv., 2014, 4(8): 654-660

SATESSA AND LEMMA. Hayne biting occurred. In conclusion, this study indicated that there is high prevalence of external injuries in working equines in and around Mehal Saint Woreda. Those people who earned their income by giving transport services with the help of equines gave more focus for health and welfare of their animals. However, those management aspects were not equally given for both equines, as a result donkeys were the leading victims of the problem. Among the causes of external injuries improper harnessing, overloading and infectious diseases are major causes of external injuries in working equine of the area. References Bojia ED (1996). Epidemiology of epizootic lymphangitis in Ethiopia: Retrospective analysis, cross-sectional study and treatment trial at Deber-zeit and Akaki Towns. DVM thesis. Facul. Vet. Med., Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Demelash B and Moges W (2006). Causes and factors associated with occurrence of external injuries in working equines in Ethiopia. Inturn. J. Appl. Res. Vet. Med., Vol. 4, No. 1. Feseha G (1997). Disease and health problems of donkeys abroad. The professional hand book of the donkey (compiled by E.D. Svendesen) 3 rd edn, Whither Books., 207-226. Feseha G, Alemu G and Friew k (2004). Donkey utilization and management in Ethiopia. Donkey, people and development complied (Denis Fielding and Poul Starkey), animal traction network for eastern and southern Africa. Fielding D, Pearson RA (1991). The number and distribution of equines in the world. Donkeys, mules and horses in trorical agriculture development. Proc. Calloq. On donkeys, mules and horses Eds: university of Edinburgh, centre for Trop. Vet. Med., UK, 62-66. FAO (1996). Production year book, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome. Gobena A (2001). Epizootic lymphangitis: study on its epidemiology and socioeconomic importance in cart horses in selected sites of Ethiopia. In: proceeding of the 15 th annual conf. Ethiop. vet. assoc., Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Helen B (2001). The gharry horses of Gonder. Draught animal news. Centre Trop. Vet. Med. Univ., Edinburg, Scotland. 35: 23-24. Mengistu A (2003). The genetic resources perspective of equines in Ethiopia and the contribution to the rural livelily hoods. Proceeding of the 11 th annual conf. Ethiop. soc. anim. prod. (ESAP). Adiss Abeba, Ethiopia. 81-85. Payne WJ (1990). An introduction to animal husbandry in the 660 J. Vet. Adv., 2014, 4(8): 654-660 topics. 4 th edition, Long Man scientific and technical. United Kingdom. Pearson RA, Mengistu A, Agajie T, Eleanor FA, David GS, Mesfin A (2000). Use and management of donkeys in peri-urban areas of Ethiopia. Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine: University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Draught Anim. Power Tech. Rep., 5. Mekuria S and Abebe R (2006). Observation on major welfare problems of equine in Meskan district, Southern Ethiopia. Hawassa University. DVM Thesis. Starkey P and Starkey M (1997). Regional and world trend in donkey population. Work shop reader. Ed: P. Starkey. Prepared for the ATNESA work shop on improving donkey utilization and management. Debrazeite, Ethiopia., 14-25. Svendsen ED (1997). Donkeys abroad. In: the professional hand book of the donkey (compiled by Svendsen ED) b 3 rd Edition, Whittet Books. 166-182. Wilson RT (1991). Equines in Ethiopia. In: Fielding D, Pearson RA, eds. Donkeys, Mules and Horses in Tropical Agricultural Development. Proceedings of Colloquium Held 3-6 September (1990). Centre Trop. Vet. Med. Univ., Edinburgh, Scotland; 33-47. Yoeseph S, Feseha G and wesene A (2001). Survey on heliminthosis of equines in wenchi, J. Eth. Vet. Ass., vol. 5. No. l.