Health and welfare assessment of working donkeys in and around Rama town, Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2016 to April 2017 with the objectives to assess the major health problems and associated factors compromising welfare and health of working donkeys in and around Rama Town, Mereb Lake District, Central zone of Tigray Regional state Ethiopia. Both direct observational (animal based) and indirect (owner based) interviews were used to collect data. A total of 384 randomly selected working donkeys were examined and 120 donkey owners were interviewed. From these 27.1%, 45.3%, 9.9%, 22.9%, 17.2% and 41.7% donkeys were suffering from skin coat, wound, musculo-skeletal, parasitic, ocular and behavioral problems, respectively. The occurrence of wound varied significantly (p<0.05) among age categories and higher prevalence was noticed in donkeys more than 15 years of age (85.7%). The body condition score, duration of work and average weight loaded were also having significant (p<0.05) effect on wound prevalence. The findings of indirect assessment revealed that majority (96.7%) of the respondents in the study area had no knowledge and information on donkey welfare. Financial problems and high cost of drugs were the major constraints recorded in this study. The findings of present study indicated that welfare problems are highly prevalent in the working donkeys in the study area.

Prevalence of wound, its associated risk factors and wound management practices in carthorses of ten selected towns of Ethiopia

“…Wound was more common in horses having a body condition score of 2 compared to horses having better body condition (BCS = 3). This finding is similar with report by several authors: Biffa and Woldemeskel (2006), Herago et al (2015), Abdela et al (2017), Chala et al (2017) and Fsahaye et al (2018). Horses with good body condition are strong enough to pull loads to the best of their ability without risk of injury.…”

Prevalence of skin wounds in working donkeys in Bukombe, Tanzania

“…There are a number of reports in the literature describing the prevalence of skin wounds and other welfare issues among working donkeys globally, 4 8 15 17–20 with a number focusing specifically on skin wounds either in the field 5 6 15 17 21–23 or under experimental conditions 24–26 . Much of the research on working donkey welfare has been focused in Ethiopia with prevalence of wounds varying between 37.9% and 79.4% 6 8 18 22 27 ; our findings on wound prevalence in this population of working donkeys concur with these values. Yoke carts are traditionally used in oxen where the anatomy and strength of this species facilitate the ‘driving’ forward the weight of a load with the yoke held in place by the dorsal hump.…”

Welfare concerns for mounted load carrying by working donkeys in Pakistan

“…The weight of mounted loads found in our research is also similar to previous investigations from Ethiopia (11) and India (29). However, it has also recently been suggested that donkeys should not carry more than one third of their bodyweight (11). Further, experimental research has suggested that donkeys can travel further, for longer and with less physiological impact if they are loaded with 40% to 50% of their bodyweight (15).…”