Equids are engaged in myriad types of work across the world, with contexts and industries varying widely between high-, middle- and low-income countries as classified by the World Bank. Through a comprehensive abstract search and literature review, w...
The COVID-19 pandemic was declared on 11 March 2020. The working equid community includes some of the world’s most marginalised people, who rely on animals for their daily lives and livelihoods. A cross-sectional study investigated the effects of COV...
This paper challenges assumptions that the health management of working equids among some of India’s poorest communities is mainly dependent upon income, economic influence, or access to veterinary services. Using a mixed-methods approach, hierarchie...
Lameness is an important concern in working equids of low- and middle-income communities (LMICs) with significant One Welfare implications. This study aims to determine the prevalence and influencing factors of lameness in working equids of LMICs. A...
Recently, the need for a more holistic approach to welfare assessment has been highlighted. This is particularly pertinent in the case of working equids who provide vital support for human livelihoods, often in low- to middle-income countries, yet su...
In Honduras, many families are reliant on working equids in their daily life. The aim of this study was to evaluate knowledge about, and approaches to colic used by owners of working equids in Choluteca, Honduras using a phenomenological approach. Se...
The livelihood of working horses’ owners and their families is intimately linked to the welfare of their equids. A proper understanding of human-animal interactions, as well as the main factors that modulate them, is essential for establishing...
Working equids provide a crucial contribution to the livelihoods and food security of communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Nevertheless, they are a neglected category within animal health policies and interventions of governmental...
Working equids are at high risk of musculoskeletal disorders due to strenuous labor, repetitive tasks, and harsh environmental conditions. This retrospective study describes the distribution of radiographically detected musculoskeletal findings in wo...
Working equids support millions of people globally, especially in low-income, lower-middle-income, and upper-middle-income countries. However, they commonly suffer from poor welfare and are typically overlooked in policy and funding decisions. This s...
It is widely assumed that working equid husbandry is carried out by men, and women are often not recognised as facilitating equid welfare. The aim of this study is to investigate how working equids contribute to women’s livelihoods in six of the Worl...
Equids fulfil many different roles within communities. In low- to middle-income countries (LMICs), in addition to providing a source of income, equids also provide essential transport of food, water, and goods to resource-limited and/or isolated comm...
Equine-assisted intervention (EAI) studies deal with clients, whereas very few studies focused on the effects on animals. EAI equids are also submitted to management, which influences their welfare. Management and working conditions depend on human d...
Equids in general experience transient lives where ownership may change multiple times, for working equids this can be more extreme where ownership changes are not only numerous but abrupt, and situations encountered prove difficult, diverse and toug...
There is great need for veterinary care for working equids worldwide. Addressing this need provides an opportunity for veterinary students to gain primary care experience. An annual two week collaborative outreach and educational program with Michiga...
Many working equids in developing countries experience poor health and welfare due to environmental and management factors. Collecting baseline data on these populations is essential to inform education projects to improve equid health and welfare. G...
Farriery is a critical component of healthcare services for working equids. However, in India, an informal workforce, lack of structured training facilities and non-implementation of farriery regulations pose challenges for quality farriery. Brooke I...
Bits used for cart horses in Senegal are typically made of recovered construction iron and often have defects related to design, shape, fit and metal quality. Consequently, there is widespread presence of bit-related oral injury amongst these equids....
Donkeys are a cornerstone in human existence, having played an important role throughout history in different economic activities, such as working in brick kilns in Egypt. This study was conducted from January 2017 to the end of April 2017 in the El-...
Working equids are often used to exhaustion, living and dying in conditions below minimal welfare standards. Due to their poor welfare status, euthanasia should be considered in certain conditions. The study aimed to describe the population and the d...
Despite the substantial contribution donkeys make to the livelihood of the world’s poorest populations, the existence of donkeys has received little notice worldwide. This article reviews the value of donkeys in a variety of sectors, including...
Fatty acid-based lipidomic analysis has been widely used to evaluate health status in human medicine as well as in the veterinary field. In equine species, there has been a developing interest in fertility and sperm quality. Fatty acids, being the pr...
Equine ownership is a common income-generating strategy in Pakistan. In Karachi, donkey carts are used to transport building materials, commercial produce and garbage. This study aimed to articulate the role and welfare of donkeys used in waste manag...
Quality farriery is essential to ensure donkey welfare, and many intervention programs in low-middle income countries (LMICs) train farriers, and educate owners, regarding the farriery needs of donkeys. It is essential for interventional programs to...
Little is known about the impact of equine-assisted interventions (EAI) on equids’ perception of humans. In this study 172 equids, living in 12 riding centres, were submitted to a standardised human–horse relationship test: the motionless person test...
There are approximately 112 million working equids in developing countries, many of which are associated with brick kilns. Brick kilns and overloading are associated with welfare problems in working equids. Understanding equids’ abilities and influen...
The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of anti-T. gondii and anti-N. caninum antibodies in equids that carry out traction work in Northeastern Brazil, and to establish the potential risk factors associated with seropositivity for these...
The assessment of animal welfare poses numerous challenges, yet an emerging approach is the consolidation of existing knowledge into new frameworks which can offer standardised approaches to welfare assessment across a variety of contexts. Multiple t...
Animal welfare can be represented by an array of indicators. There is, however, increasing demand for concise welfare assessments that can be easily communicated and compared. Previous methods to aggregate welfare assessments have focused on livestoc...
The objective of this study was to describe an outbreak of equine herpesvirus-1 myeloencephalopathy (EHM) in a population of aged equids. The outbreak was linked to the introduction of five healthy non-resident horses 15 days prior to the first case...
Background: Femoral head ostectomy is considered a salvage procedure in the treatment of chronic coxofemoral joint luxation in small equids. Permanent lameness of varying degrees, largely depending on the animal’s weight, and potential contrala...
Glanders is a highly contagious and often fatal zoonotic disease of equids caused by Burkholderia mallei, a pathogen of significant concern due to its potential for bioterrorism. In Brazil, glanders remains endemic, particularly among working equids...
The techniques of agriculture and animal husbandry at Tell Humeida, a Middle Uruk Period (Late Chalcolithic) site on the middle Syrian Euphrates, were studied using stable isotopes of bone collagen of domestic and wild mammals and from cereal and rud...
This study discusses scientific findings on the use of draught animals such as equids (i.e., horses, mules, and donkeys) and bovids (i.e., cattle and water buffaloes) in rural labours. Relevant peer-reviewed literature published between 1980 and 2021...
The significance of Trypanosoma equiperdum as the causative agent of dourine cannot be understated, especially given its high mortality rate among equids. International movement of equids should be subject to thorough health checks and screenings to...
Research shows that working equids in low and middle-income countries play an essential role in supporting the livelihoods of their owners. The objective of the study was to provide the first description of the welfare status of working horses in Fij...
Mules are essential for pack work in mountainous areas, but there is a lack of research on this species. This study intends to assess the perceptions, attitudes, empathy and pain perception of soldiers about mules, to understand the type of human–mul...
Projects that aim to improve the welfare of equids worldwide usually involve people from different countries and cultures working together. Given that professionals involved with multi-stakeholder projects often work cross-culturally, this study exam...
Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) is a retroviral disease of equids, for which there is no vaccine particularly adapted to American viral strains. In this work we searched for possible epitope regions for the surface proteins gp90 and gp45, rationally e...
West Nile virus (WNV) and Usutu virus (USUV) are neurotropic mosquito-borne orthoflaviviruses maintained in an enzootic cycle, in which birds are amplifying/reservoir hosts, while humans and equids are dead-end hosts. As northern Italy, especially th...
In the past, executioners played an important role in the legal system. Besides sentence executions, they also worked as dogcatchers (i.e., eliminating stray animals or cadavers of dead animals from towns), and were responsible for sanitary condition...
Stallion mules have been used as working equids in several countries. Aggressiveness under the influence of testosterone results in the necessity for surgical castration before work training. The gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) vaccine may be a...
Equine hepacivirus (EqHV, Flaviviridae, hepacivirus) is a small, enveloped RNA virus generally causing sub-clinical hepatitis with occasional fatalities. EqHV is reported in equids worldwide, but for Italy data are limited. To address this, a survey...
Halicephalobus gingivalis (H. gingivalis) is a very rare opportunistic cause of fatal meningoencephalomyelitis in equids but may also cause parasitic infections in exposed humans via zoonotic transmission (from animals to humans). We herein report a...
African horse sickness is a deadly and highly infectious disease of equids, caused by African horse sickness virus (AHSV). AHSV is one of the most economically important members of the Orbivirus genus. AHSV is transmitted by the biting midge, Culicoi...
Theileria haneyi, a recently discovered tick-borne hemoparasite infecting equids globally, has significant implications for equine health. Although it is closely related to T. equi (sharing 23% genomic divergence), it establishes an asymptomatic carr...
Comparative transcriptomics offers a powerful approach to elucidate host–virus interactions across related pathogens, yet systematic evaluations across species-matched cellular systems remain limited. We performed a cross-species RNA sequencing...
Several studies investigated risk and prognostic parameters for horses with colic; however, the consensus is still debated. The present work aimed to investigate colic outcomes and to identify risk factors in horses referred for colic. In this multic...
Parascaris sp. is the only ascarid parasitic nematode in equids and one of the most threatening infectious organisms in horses. Only a limited number of compounds are available for treatment of horse helminthiasis, and Parascaris sp. worms have devel...
This work aimed to characterize S. aureus isolates from the eyes of healthy and clinically affected equines in the Kafrelsheikh Governorate, Egypt. A total of 110 animals were examined for the presence of S. aureus, which was isolated from 33 animals...