Retrospective Assessment of Donkeys’ Health and Welfare problems in Dale Sadi District Haro Sabbu Veterinary Clinic, Oromia, Ethiopia

Background: Although donkey contributed vital role in human livelihoods through direct and indirect contributions to nancial, human and social capital, emphasis has not been given to study the welfare issue which include health problems and management requirement. A retrospective study and questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the health and the welfare problem of donkeys coming to the Haro Sabbu Veterinary clinic for treatment at the Dale Sadi district, Haro SabbuVeterinary clinic, Oromia, Ethiopia. Data on 448 donkeys from 2018 to 2020 were analyzed from the data record sheet kept by the clinic. Results: The most common case for wound occurrence were back sore 135(30.1%), chest wound 37(8.3%), bite 27(6.0%) and combined wound of both back and bite 14(3.1%). The nding indicated that the occurrence of wound in donkeys having poor 170 (64.4%), medium 41(33.6%) and good 7(11.6%) body condition and this was found to be statistically signicantly associated (p=0.000). Among the common health problems and abnormalities encountered in donkeys back sore wound 135(30.1%), lameness 92(20.5%), parasitic infestation 60(13.6%), chest wound 37(8.3) and signs of colic 34 (7.6%) were the major problems encountered in donkeys coming to clinic for treatment with there was no a statistically signicant difference among different years. In addition to body condition, the occurrence of wounds was found to be statistically signicantly associated with age category and work type. In addition, pack donkeys experienced higher lameness occurrences as compared to cart donkeys and it was statistically signicant (P>0.05). In addition to health related problems, the questionnaire survey conducted also revealed welfare problems such as management condition, overloading, working hour, housing problems, and wounds due to harnessing were the major welfare problems of donkeys in the study area. Conclusion: This retrospective study and questionnaire survey revealed the signicant health and welfare problems of donkeys that need to be addressed in order to improve welfare status, their health and working eciency. Therefore, there should be immediate awareness creation for community, government, community, local service providers and policy makers on welfare issue of donkey and health management in the study area in particular and in the country in general. objectives of with each face-to face


Background
It is has been long time since donkey being used by human being. They are a vital animal in supporting livelihoods of marginalized group in many region of Africa [1] Donkeys contribute vital role in human livelihoods through their direct and indirect contributions to nancial, human and social capital. They are also important in communities' and households' socio-cultural lives, as they are often used in celebrations and in supporting households in need by being lent and shared between families [2].
Distribution of donkeys in the world shows 98% of them to be found in developing countries. Of this, Africa contributed more than 11.6 million for the world [1]. Ethiopia owned 40% of Africa donkey population with about 5.2 million donkeys which is 44% in Oromia, 34% in Amhara and 19% in Tigray regional states [3].
Donkey is still mentioned at the rst as one of the most important drought animals contributing a signi cant role in the agriculture sector of developing country. In Ethiopia donkeys are considered as a better option than other draft animal because of their long time tolerance for dehydration, low sweating rate and good thermo-ability. Frequent occurrence of drought in Ethiopia causes an increase cattle death which may result in an increase donkey usage as a draft and pack animal largely in rural area and with a little in urban areas. Donkey contributed over 50% of animal energy scenario in the country. Donkey is well adapted more than both mule and horse in Ethiopian [4].
Although Donkey contributed prominent role in Ethiopia agriculture sector, much emphasis has not been given to study the welfare issue which include their physiology, nutritional requirement, health problems and management requirement. Donkey in Ethiopia at least in the donkey health and welfare project (DHWP) operation sites are subjected to variety of health disorder including multi parasite, back sore and other wounds, hoof problems, colic and various infectious diseases such as strangle, tetanus, Africa horse sickness (AHS) and others [5]. As the welfare of animals, donkey needs to be protected to live peacefully in their environment without affecting their health and welfare. They must not unnecessarily be neglected to have access for feed, water and shelter or abused by beating and harming and deprived of freedom of movement and exercise [6].
The objective of this retrospective study is thus, to document and compare the prevalence and distribution pattern of assessment of donkeys' health management and to identify common disease in donkeys in Dale Sadi District Haro Sabbu Veterinary Clinic, Oromia, Ethiopia. This work may bene t researchers, veterinary practitioners and other animal health workers.

Results
Number of recorded donkey cases handled and get treatment at Dale Sadi District, Haro Sabbu Veterinary clinics from 2018-2020 The data record format showed that some donkeys were coming to Dale Sadi district Haro Sabbu clinic to get treatments against different health problems during the year 2018-2020. A total of 448 donkey conditions and patient pro le were recorded from casebook during the three year period at Haro Sabbu veterinary clinic (Figure 1).
Descriptive statistics of Donkey in the study sites with different variables from retrospective study The present study revealed that the body condition score of the donkeys is showed 58.9% of the donkeys were with poor body condition score, while it is only 13.8% of the donkeys had well to ideal body condition. The donkey in the study areas were predominantly 267(59.6%) carry pack while 142(31.7%) were pulling a cart (Table 1). The present retrospective study has revealed donkeys were suffering from multiple health and welfare problems in the study area. Wound problem (Back sore, Bite), lameness, colic, ophthalmic problems, accidental injury, different infectious and parasitic diseases were the major problems encountered in donkeys during the year 2018-2020 (Table 1). The common health problems and abnormalities in donkeys were back sore wound 135(30.1%), lameness 92(20.5%), parasitic infestation 60(13.6%), chest wound 37(8.3) and signs of colic 34 (7.6%) (Table2). Prevalence of wound The overall prevalence of wound was 48.7%. Most common sites of wound occurrence in the donkeys were back sore 135(30.1%); chest wound 37(8.3%); bite 27(6.0%) and combined wound of back and bite 14(3.1%) ( Figure 2).
higher wound occurrences as compared to cart donkeys and it was statistically signi cant (P>0.05. The nding also indicated that 170 (64.4%), 41(33.6%) and 7(11.6%) were having wound in poor, medium and good body condition scores respectively. The body conditions of working donkeys were found to be statistically signi cantly associated with the occurrence of wound (Table 3). This study showed that 56.5% of the donkeys in Dale Sadi district used for work were adults while about 20.8% of the donkeys were young.

Prevalence of lameness
Among 448 donkey patients admitted to the clinic to get treatment, 92(20.5%) were treated for different types of lameness. The prevalence of lameness in pack carrying donkeys was found to be 49((18.4%). The common type of lameness were hoof problems 65(14.5%), joint problems 14(3.1%) and long bones problem 13(2.9%) ( Table 4).   (Table 6). According the above gure ( Figure 3) most of the donkeys spend day time working, and have a limited time roaming around and/or grazing, if available. On average (7.71), a donkey was working per day for 4 to 10h interval.
As shown on the Figure 4, the present study revealed that the majority of the respondents reported that the average weight that their donkeys load was 88.08kg (50-120 kg) for pack carrying donkey and 259 kg (245-480kg) for cart pulling donkey. The majority of load carried at a time was above the capacity of the animal, taking the assumption that a donkey should carry one third on its pack or a triple of its body weight if pulling in cart (The Donkey Sanctuary Ethiopia, annual report, 2017).

Discussion
This study has indicated many health, management and welfare problems in the donkeys to coming clinics to get treatments in and around Dale Sadi district, Haro Sabbu town. Although the majority of the donkeys 253(56.5%) were adults, about 102(22.8) % of donkeys were old and 93(20.8%) young. With regard to this there are owners begin to use donkeys for work before their age are mature enough in this study area. Until donkeys age are mature enough, it is not recommended to use for work as this can expose them to several health and structural abnormality such as sore back problem and lameness [10].
Although good body condition was observed in 62(13.8%) of the donkey, the majority 264(58.9) of the donkeys were seen with poor body condition. Another study in Ethiopia also agree with the current nding that majority of the donkeys were found poor body condition [10]. This may indicate that poor body condition might be one of the main risk factors for the high incidence of back sore, due to less muscle coverage of emaciated animals. The main reason for poor body condition score of donkey are health related problem, improper management related activity and scarcity of feed.
According to the current study result the overall occurrence of wound was 48.7%, which is lower than the previous report which were 58.0% [11], 77.5% [12] and 79.4% [13] in Ethiopia. The present nding is also lower than (59%) the report from outside of Ethiopia in Jordan [14]. The difference in occurrence of wound at different study area in donkeys might be due to the variation in working conditions, educational level of donkey owner's, age at which the donkey begin work, management condition and body condition of donkeys [15].
Most common sites of wound occurrence in the donkeys were back sore 135(30.1%) and chest wound. These nding is almost the same with the result of similar works done in Ethiopia [10,16] and Mexico [17]. The occurrence of back sore wound in the donkeys might be caused by an integration of several causative factors related with management, category of harness material and not well appropriate harnessing and lack of padding on the back of the animals [15]. Hence, there was a statistically signi cant difference in the prevalence of wound among different age groups, body condition score and types of work.
Relating the work type with occurrences of wound, higher incidence of wound was seen in poor body condition 264(58.9%) donkey than good 62(13.8%). This nding is probably due to the fact that, donkeys with a poor body condition index might have less natural padding coverage, which could be protecting them from friction, lesions and pressure during carrying pack or pulling cart. But, the report from another study in morocco is not in agreement the nding of the current study [18].
The other causes for occurrence of wounds of donkey at this study site are bites. Bites may result due to bitten by different types of animals such as hyena, dog and it may also occur from ghting between males donkey, as the of castrating donkey is not well practiced in the areas, and this may lead to aggressive behaviour to each other [19,5].
This study revealed abnormalities in movement of donkey admitted to the clinic to get treatment were treated for different types of lameness and this may suggest that donkeys were overloaded which leads to tendon or other structural damage. The nding of this retrospective study also re ects the common type of lameness were hoof problems 65(14.5%) which was less than the previous study report (18.2%) in Mekelle city [20] and (32.2%) in Jordan [21]. The observed incidence of hoof problems may result from lack of proper hoof trimming, the lack of veterinary services, travelling of donkeys in inappropriate rough land surface in the study area and this might have predisposed them to hoof puncture with sharp objects such as nails and broken glasses. In study conducted at different time by several authors similar hoof problems were reported in different area of Ethiopia and somewhere outside of Ethiopia [22,5,23,24] On this study, there was a statistically signi cant difference in the prevalence of lameness among different work types. Concerning work type higher prevalence of lameness was observed in pack carrying donkey than cart donkeys. This may shows that the donkeys are not in suitable condition with their owners. This might be due to less understanding of the behaviour of the donkeys by the owners, poor understanding of the animal welfare issues and less appropriate working management functioning.
This study revealed colic cases 34(7.6%) as one of health problems encountered at the study area. Colic occurrence at this study area might be due to the ingestion of a foreign body such as plastic materials and impaction due to ingestion of excessive coarse, dry and high ber feeds which may cause gastrointestinal disturbance. These ndings are similar with the nding of other author in Ethiopia [5].
Among the nding of cases parasitic infestation, different types of infectious cases, rectal prolapse and ophthalmic problem in this study was consistent with the results of the study made by other author from Ethiopia [5,25].
Results of questionnaire survey showed that majority of donkey owners were not having knowledge on donkey welfare issues. This may result from due to the educational level attained by majority of the donkey owner illiterate and also most of them are not practice improved harness which compromise welfare of donkeys.
According to this study the average weight that their donkeys load was 88.08kg (50-120 kg) for pack carrying donkey and 259 kg (245-480kg) for cart pulling donkey. Generally, a donkey should not carry more than one third of its body weight [15]. It is believed that the overloading and overworking are the predisposing factors for the occurrence of wound [26]. External injuries due to overwork and overload have also reported by other scholars [13, 18, and 27].
The nding of questionnaire survey also showed majority of the respondent (82.5%) reported that donkeys in the study areas depend on only both cereals/grain and grass feeding which could be the main risk factor for poor body condition. This clearly shows that apart from health and management related problems, shortage of feed may be a major contributory factor for poor body condition of the donkeys. This study result is similar to the other report from Ethiopia [10] in which poor body condition might also be one of the contributory factors for the high incidence of back sore, due to less muscle cover.

Conclusion
In this retrospective study there are a signi cant health, management and welfare problems of working donkeys in the study area. This study has also attempted to cast light on the signi cant health problems of working donkeys that need to be addressed in order to improve their health and working e ciency. Therefore, there should be massive awareness creation on animal welfare and health management to the people working with donkeys and the general public. There must be also signi cant endeavour at multiple stages; community, local service providers and policy level to improve the neglected welfare statue of working donkeys in the area in particular and in the country in general.

Materials And Methods
Study area and period The study was conducted from January 2018 to December 2020 retrospectively by using donkeys' patient case registration books in Dale Sadi District Haro Sabbu Veterinary clinic, Oromia Western, Ethiopia. The Dale Sadi district is located in Ethiopia, Kellem Wollega zone of Oromia regional state, situated at 562 Kilometres West of Addis Ababa. The mean annual rain fall in Dale sadi district ranges from 1150-1300mm. The annual temperature ranges from 26-34 °C. The district has altitudes ranging from 1200-2000 m above sea level. The district has large rivers like Birbir, Mardafo and Kile River. The areas have got a number of wild animals such as African buffaloes, Bush pigs, warthog, bush buck, kudu, hippopotamus, crocodiles, hyena, antelopes and snakes. Agriculture is the main stay of the livelihood of the society with mixed farming system and livestock play an integral role for agriculture [7]. observing the body condition of the animals in the eld [9]. The study animals were 448 donkeys' population and they were coming to the clinic for treatment from 5 kebeles' (the smallest administrative unit) of Dale district.

Study design
Retrospective studies The case les of donkey from the clinical case record book of the Dale Sadi District, Haro Sabbu Veterinary clinic and personal case record book were used to retrospectively assess data on the different health, management and welfare problems of working donkeys from January 2018 to December 2020. The data collected retrospectively from the clinic for treatment were stored either electronically or on a data record sheet as a hard copy. Data from daily clinical record formats/sheet were entered into Microsoft Excel spread sheet. The data were coded into categories of clinical ndings for each donkey. The categories were de ned according to the systems affected, types of the problem and the cause of the problems. A total of 448 records of donkeys from 2018 to 2020 were extracted and organized for further analysis. The sampling unit was donkey patient encounters at Dale Sadi District Haro Sabbu Veterinary clinic to treat different acute and/or chronic illness.

Questionnaire survey
A structured questionnaire was designed and validated to study the welfare of donkeys including the number of donkeys owned, magnitude of work and management of donkeys. All individuals those are owners of donkey those have willingness to participate in the study and ready to give the required information were communicated to provide us with relevant information. The questionnaire was randomly administered to donkey owners, drivers coming to the Harro Sabbu veterinary clinic to collect relevant information about working donkey's welfare issues in the study area. For the purpose, total of 114 donkey owners were interviewed. The question was constructed in English, but during the interviews, the interviewer's were translating the questions were into Afan Oromo language. The questionnaire was administered through face to face interview.

Data Collection
An excel sheet data collection format was designed and then data was collected on the different health, management and welfare problems of working donkeys from January 2018 to December 2020 retrospectively by using patient case registration books in Dale Sadi District Haro Sabbu Veterinary clinic. For this study, 448 donkeys data record that contain the animal's characteristics (age, sex, breed, body condition, clinical signs and symptoms observed); disease diagnosis (name, empiric or physical clinical examination and con rmatory laboratory tests used) and prescriber's signature, level of education and years of experiences were collected retrospectively for 3 years period from January 01, 2018 to December 31, 2020. Cases of cattle, shoats, horses, mules and pet animals were not included in this study as they were programmed for another study in the future. Donkeys presented for castration were also not also included in this study.

Data analysis
The data collected was stored in the Microsoft-Excel Spread Sheet and analyzed using SPSS Version 20. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data. Pearson's Chi-square test was used to check the association between variables. P-value less than 0.05 at 95% con dence level was considered in interpreting the results.  Frequency distribution of load per Kg of donkeys from interviewed respondent