Prevalence of Equine Wounds and Associated Risk Factors in Different Agro-ecological zones of Lesotho

Abstract

The contribution of equines in sustaining the livelihoods of many people, particularly in developing countries is evident. However, their socioeconomic importance is often overlooked and consequently they are given poor husbandry practices which substantially threaten their welfare. The occurrence of wounds is among other health threads which stem from such poor practices. A cross-sectional study was undertaken on 420 randomly selected equine from September to December 2022 with the objective to determine the prevalence of equine wounds and identifying influencing factors associated with the prevalence. Binary logistic regression was used for determining the prevalence of wounds in different parameters. Odds ratios (OR) were used to determine the degree of association between the different risk factors and the wound. The overall prevalence of equine wound was 39.0% from which 53.5% and 23.9% of wound prevalence were detected in horses and donkeys, respectively. The prevalence of wound differed significantly between different sex groups where males (50.7%) were highly affected than females (26.6%). The agro-ecological zone was found to have a significant influence on the occurrence of wounds where equines in the mountains and the foothills (46.6%) and (44.9%) respectively had higher record than those in the lowlands (26.9%). The distribution of wounds differed significantly between different body regions and more records were obtained at the back (50.0%) and the least on the legs (11.6%). The observed wound categories differed significantly, and more records were on abrasion (40.9%) and the least on incision (9.1%). It is concluded that wounds represent serious welfare problem in equines in the study area.