Available online 29 December 2015
Highlights
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- Working equids are important for completing many fundamental tasks in Egypt.
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- Due to a lack of resources, many working equids suffer from poor welfare.
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- Over 5000 working equids were assessed with a comprehensive welfare assessing tool.
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- Equids who pulled goods by cart or worked in the kilns were at highest risk.
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- This assessment tool can monitor the efficacy of welfare enhancing strategies.
Abstract
There
are an estimated 112 million horses, donkeys and mules (i.e., working
equids) in developing regions of the world. Though their roles are often
fundamental to the well-being of the families they work for, their
welfare is often severely compromised due to the limited resources
and/or limited knowledge base of owners. The main objective of this
study was to develop a multifactorial welfare assessment score for
accurate, comprehensive, quick and reliable assessment of these equids. A
total of 5248 working equids (n = 2198 horses, 2640 donkeys,
410 mules) were assessed between February 2012–January 2014. Equids were
divided into categories based on the three species involved, as well as
the four work types involved (transporting goods or people by cart,
ridden (e.g., in tourist locations), or working in brick kilns).
Analysis of variance “ANOVA” was used to compare differences between
groups with α set at 0.05. In terms of behavioral measures, the most
at-risk equids appeared to be horses who pulled goods by cart with 20.7%
showing a depressed attitude and 22.6% being unresponsive to an
observer’s approach (significantly greater than the other species and
the other work types, P < 0.05). Mules who pulled goods by
cart showed 30.8% avoiding an observer's approach, 42.7% avoiding chin
contact and 14.2% showing an aggressive response to observer
(significantly greater than the other species and the other work types, P < 0.05).
In terms of physical measures, 21.6% of donkeys who pulled goods by
cart had harness-induced lesions and 21.9% showed evidence of
firing-type lesions (significantly greater than the other species and
other work types, P < 0.05). Mules who pulled goods by cart
had the highest prevalence of mistreatment-induced lesions at 36.7%
(significantly greater than the other species and other work types, P < 0.05).
From a positive perspective, horses used for riding or transporting
people by cart (e.g., most often animals working in tourist areas) were
most likely to be in a healthy physical state (over 85% for both
categories; significantly greater than other species and other work
types, P < 0.05). To conclude, this welfare assessment
scoring system met our initial objective of being a useful tool in
identifying which equids had the most significant welfare problems
(i.e., which species, work type, age and sex). This, in turn will help
in selecting appropriate interventions, and in targeting interventions
toward the most vulnerable equids.
Keywords
- Working equids;
- Welfare assessment;
- Equine behavior;
- Equine welfare
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
