Monitoring of Husbandry Practices and Harnessing of Working Equines in Hulet Eju Enese District East Gojjam Amhara Regional State Ethiopia
s: The study was conducted in Hulet Eju Enese district, Ethiopia to describe the major management practices and working performance constraint of equines. Two urban and three rural kebeles were selected randomly from a total of six urban and forty four rural kebeles, respectively based the proportion of equine abundance. Thirty house hold from each kebele were selected purposively. Semi structured questionnaire survey was carried out on 150 interviewees with main issues of equine management, constraint and harnessing system. To supplement questionnaire survey, three focus group discussions were made. Data collected in the field were managed and analyzed using SPSS (Stastical Package for Social Science version 16) In the area donkey were mainly used for pack (100% and cart service (34% while mule were mainly used for riding (83.33% pack (56.67% and cart service (46% The working hours of donkey and mule were not similar in urban and rural area.They used greater than nine hours per day in urban area. The majority of the respondents (65.54% housed their equines a house attached to the main house. In urban area of the district lack of shelter, feed shortage and health problems ranked as 1 2 and 3 prioritized problems, respectively. In rural area feed st nd rd shortage, awareness of people toward equines and health problems were ranked as 1 2 and 3 respectively. st nd rd In the area the major harnessing system were breast band harnesses (45.65% padding (33.85% and saddle (19.45% In Hulet Eju Enese district equine production lack reliable welfare and proper management like feeding, working time duration, proper using of harness that could provide the full benefits of working equines. Generally, the major constraints of equine working performance were vary in urban and rural areas of Hulet Eju Enese district. In Hulet Eju Enese district the types of harness vary on work type and area (rural and urban) Practicing equines welfare are crucial so that taking this into consideration the equine owners are mandated to commit in alleviating discomfort, pain, injury occurrences and other related welfare problems of equines. Key word: Equine constraints Equine management Harnessing Hulet Eju Enese Monitoring INTRODUCTION Moreover, donkeys and horses, unlike oxen low priority In Ethiopia the contribution of equines is extremely This misuse, mistreatment and lack of veterinary care diverse. They can carry heavy loads, draw carts, serve as for equines have contributed enormously to early death, a means of personal transport and provide a taxi service; majority of which currently have working life expectancy consequently, they contribute significantly to the national of 4 to 6 years. However, in countries where animal economy [1] welfare is in practice, the life expectancy of equine reaches The husbandry practices of working equines are up to 30 years [4, 5] The term "fit and feeling good" is to poor. Some methods of hobbling to restrain equines cause illustrate that animal welfare includes both emotional and discomfort and inflict wounds [2, 3] and poorly designed physiological components. Physical wellbeing includes harnesses or yokes that may be heavy and ragged health and is affected by injury and disease while have an effect on the animals health and safety. In emotional wellbeing encompasses minimizing negative addition, animals are suffering from lack of shelter from mental states such as fear, pain and distress as well as sun, rain or biting insects at markets or working sites. maximizing positive states such as happiness and comfort. are given when it comes to feed allocation. Am Euras. J. Sci. Res. 11 (6) 437 446, 2016 438 A third component which overlaps with the previous two stratified into urban and rural kebeles based on is naturalness and in the context of working animal infrastructure, management system and work type of welfare, this can be described as expression of normal equines. The second stage was selection of rural behavior [6] administrative kebeles for rural area and kebeles for In Hulet Eju Enese district equines were kept for urban areas. Accordingly, three rural administrations and different purpose like cart service, pack service, traction two urban kebeles were randomly selected from a total of and renting out service. But long working hours and 44 rural and 6 urban kebeles based on the proportion of difficult conditions are experienced by working donkeys equine abundance, respectively. Thirty households were and mules in the district [7] Animals are often engaged in purposively selected and interviewed based on equine work for long hours and when get free; they are left to possession (one who has at least one donkey and one graze on natural pasture. These have a potential to affect mule were selected) from each selected rural negatively their welfare and quality of life of equines in administrative and urban kebeles (a total of 150 the district. interviews) MATERIALS AND METHODS Data Collection: A rapid survey with veterinarian, animal Study Area: Hulet Eju Enese district is found in east discussion was made with key informants after designing Gojjam zone, Amhara region and located 370 km check lists of issues to be covered with the experts. Semi northwest of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. The structured questionnaire was prepared in a way it can district is geographically located 10 45' 00' 11 10' 00' N address the aim of the research. Participatory methods, 0 0 latitude and 37 45' 69' 38 10' 00' E longitude. The district such as focus group discussions (FGDs) and semi 0 0 has an altitude range of 1290 4036 m a.s.l. [7] structured questionnaire interviews were used to generate The district consists of 44 rural and 6 urban Kebeles. information at household and community level. Semi The total land area is 138,336 ha; the land use pattern is structured questionnaire interviews was developed to classified into five categories; 66.7% cultivated 13% discover demographic characteristics, equine acquisition grazing, 7.2% bushes and forest land around homestead, and reasons for keeping them,frequency of equine use, 12.96% land not useful (kola) and 0.14% settlement housing and other major husbandry practices and major areas [7] constraint of working equine performance and harnessing Agro ecologically, the district is classified as 52% systems in the study area. of"Weinadega"(midland) 18% of "Dega" (highland) 30% of "Kola" (lowland).The mean annual rainfall is Statistical Analysis: Data collected was organized, 1100 mm ranging from 997 mm to 1203 mm. It is unimodal, summarized and analyzed using Statistical Package for falling during "Kiremt" (June September) however, there Social Sciences [8] is small rain falling between April and May "Belge" The mean annual temperature is 18.5degC and the range is from RESULTS AND DISSCUSSIONS mean minimum of 10degC to mean maximum 27degC [7] Livestock Production: The livestock production is one of majority of the households in both urban and rural the major economic bases of the area. The total livestock kebeles were headed by males which accounted for population in the district is estimated to be 727,157 heads 88.66% In line with the present finding in Ethiopia the out of which 88,112 (12.12% cattle, 488,649 (67.2% sheep, number of female household heads who owned equines 19,579 (2.7% goats, 17,183 (2.36% equines and 113,634 was very small as compared to male household heads [9] (15.62% are poultry [7] Female headed household in this particular study would Sampling Techniques and Methods The majority of equine owners were within age range of Sampling Techniques: Multi stage sampling techniques 19 40 (42.0% and 41 65 (43.33% Similarly, according to were employed where the first stage was district. The [10] study in central highlands of Ethiopia the age of the district was selected purposively based on equine respondents varied between 29 and 68 years with an population, potential cart service and access of the road average of 40.25 years. About 48.3% of equine owners in the urban kebeles of the district. The district was were illiterate (who cannot read and write) and 51.7% of production expert in the district and focused group Household Characteristics: The survey revealed that the indicate either the husband has died or they are divorced. Am Euras. J. Sci. Res. 11 (6) 437 446, 2016 439 them were literate (who can read and write).Also the authors added that, at central highlands of Ethiopia 42.5% of equine owners were illiterate and the rest 56.5% were literate. The majorities (76.7% of the household heads in rural area were illiterates. In contrast, in the urban area the majorities (80.0% of the household heads were literate, who can read and write. The majority of the households were Orthodox Christians (73.3% followed by Muslims (21.7% Purpose of Keeping Donkeys: In Hulet Eju Enese district, donkeys were kept for different purposes (Table 1) Donkeys were kept for pack (100% cart service (20.67% and renting out (6.0% Group discussion participants and key informants in the area, reported that donkeys were kept for income generation by selling them through production. In the district donkey are not kept for riding and traction purpose, this might be due to tradition, perception of owners and the presence of mule as a choice. In contrast to this in Turkiye donkeys are used as traction animals in rural areas for small scale farmers [11] Beside this [12] finding in Meskan district, southern Ethiopia 44.1% donkey owners were engaged in draught type of work. In contrast to the present finding, 100 of the working donkeys in Africa were used to pull carts while 14.9 were used for pack work and 6.4 for riding [13] This finding is in line with other study in Ethiopia 56% of households kept donkeys mainly for pack services (to generate income and homestead use) 26% for cart use (to generate income) and 14% fo