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

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.