Assessment of Health Problems of Equine Owned by Qalander Community to Design an Appropriate Intervention Plan

Introduction: Qalander is a nomadic equine rearing, poorest of the poor community, found mostly along the banks of river Yamuna and Ganges in India. Traditionally they were associated with the occupation of ‘taming the wild bears’ and using them for entertainment. Now most of them have settled along the wasteland near the river banks and have adopted equine breeding and rearing of foal as their main profession. The community is largely deprived of animal health care facilities and therefore suffers heavy losses due to high mortality/morbidity.

Objective: Identification of equine health and husbandry related problems owned by Qalander community to design appropriate intervention strategy.  

Methodology: Four districts viz. Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad and Saharanpur are having highest equine population were selected from Uttar Pradesh. A comprehensive template was designed including equine and husbandry related parameters and tested in the field. A total of 209 equines were assessed and analysed. A total of 36 focussed group discussions (FGD’s) were conducted at different sites in four districts to capture owners’ management practices, mortality and morbidity data. The information was compiled and interpreted.

Results and discussion: The main profession of Qalander was found to be equine breeding (96.65%) and foal rearing (3.35%). Out of total 209 equine sampled, 32.54% of equines were either ‘very thin’ or ‘thin’ and 89.95% of equine were above 3 years of age. Only 32.09% of equine were provided grain. However, 87.08% of equine were allowed to graze an average of 10.6 hours/day. FGD revealed that 381 animals died last year (June’10 to May’11), highest mortality recorded in Meerut (73.23%), followed by Muzaffarnagar (12.86%). Surra (89.24%) was the major cause followed by colic (5.25%), dystokia (2.88%), respiratory problem (1.57%) and tetanus (1.06%). A total of 400 animals aborted last year; highest in Meerut (64.25%), followed by Muzaffarnagar (24%).

Conclusion: Qalander is one of the most backward and poor equine breeding and rearing community. A study was carried in four districts of Uttar Pradesh where 209 animals were assessed and 36 FGDs were conducted separately. Majority (89.24%) of animals died due to surra followed by colic (5.25%). High mortality due to surra may be attributed to abundance of vector and presence of reservoir. A total of 400 animals aborted last year; highest recorded in Meerut (64.25%). The welfare issues identified during the study may be addressed through an integrated approach. High mortality due to surra may be accredited to abundance of vector, low resistance (very thin animal) and presence of cattle and buffaloes which are considered as reservoir of surra. In addition, nomadic nature of the Qalander community, grazing of ‘group of equine’ along with cattle and buffaloes(reservoir) helps in spreading certain contagious/infectious diseases like surra, strangle and glander. These diseases not only spread among the locality but also to other areas through sale and purchase of animals in equine fairs. There is an urgent need to investigate the etiologies of high incidence of surra related mortality in the Qalander area.