Camel mange is an extremely pruritic and contagious disease of camel caused by a small parasite Sarcoptes scabiei var cameli, It mostly affects the head, neck, flanks, inner side of the thighs and inguinal region of the animal. It is transmitted by direct or indirect contact, is one of the most important parasitic diseases affecting camels. Camel mange is economically important disease that hinders productivity and health of camel. Therefore, a cross sectional study was conducted between March to September 2021 to determine prevalence of camel mange mites and associated risk factors. A total of 384 animals were randomly selected and subjected to skin scrapings to recover mange from suspected lesions which was later on examined under microscope, out of the complete camels examined 116 (30.2%) camels were found positive for mange mite infestation. Only Sarcoptes scabiei var cameli was identified as the only mite species in all skin scraping samples collected from the suspected mange mite lesions. PA, sex and age showed no significant variation on mange infestation (P>0.05), while only body condition and herd size were shown statistically significant difference in prevalence of mange mites (P<0.05). This study indicates that camel populations in Kebribeyah district had large amount of mange mites which could hamper health and production status of the camels. Therefore, more emphasis should be given to improve the management system, further studies and control measures should be conducted to shrink the effect of mange mite infestation on camel husbandry.

Small ruminant production is an essential component of agricultural activity for smallholder farmers. The aim of this study was to assess small ruminant production and marketing practices in the Harawa district of Somali Region, Ethiopia. For the study 90 households owning small ruminant were selected from three different towns of Harawa district. Information on sheep and goat ownership patterns, production objectives, and management and production constraints were collected from 90 households using semi structured questionnaires. The available feed resources are grass species, crop aftermath and legumes species are the common ones. The average family size was 5.78 ± 0.235 persons per household. Crop-livestock farming was the commonly used farming system with (62.75%) extensive and (27.25%) semi-intensive production system. The mean total land holding was 6.08 ± 0.24 ha per HH and was significantly (P < 0.05) varied across production systems. On average, the sample households owned 46.32 ± 1.22 sheep, 38.28 ± 1.40 goat, 4.85 ± 0.43 cattle, 4.15 ± 0.54 camel, 2.18 ± 0.19 donkey and 0.53 ± 0.20 poultry. The finding shows most of the respondents kept sheep and goats for insurance as ranked first. Feed shortage was ranked first as the main constraint hindering sheep and shortage of veterinary service, drought, disease, water shortage and poor infrastructure were the other major constraints of sheep and goat production in the study area. The major production and marketing constraints in small ruminant production in the area are disease and parasite (cadho), feed and grazing land shortage, low productivity, poor veterinary service and poor of infrastructure. Therefore, it is important to use modern production systems with improved technology in the area and improve traditional system through feed supplementation and better health care. As well as improving marketing efficiency through appropriate policy and provision of information is important.

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