According to the Government of Pakistan Livestock Census 2006, the population of mules, Donkeys, and Horses comprise of 4.75 million. After 2006, provincial statistics like those given by Punjab Livestock Census 2018 about the population of equines but Census for the whole country isn’t started yet. Keeping the record of old data, if we consider that population as an exact measure then even this amount should not be ignored because a quarter of the public is earning less than one dollar in Pakistan per day and these are the only asset for those people living in rural areas. In hilly areas, they are still used for transportation of goods and in far off villages they are regularly used for agriculture and brick kilns. Apart from common welfare problems like lameness, eye diseases, poor body condition, abnormal hoof shapes and wounds, equines in Pakistan became a victim of viral disease, African Horse Sickness Disease.
As the name indicates, the disease has an origin of Africa but it has been now transferred to Third World Countries like Pakistan. Horses and mules are more prone to it and efficient treatment is unavailable till now for this disease so most of the cases affected with it are reported with serious illness and death in a very short time. The clinical signs are characterized by cyclic fever, respiratory as well as cardiac problems. The only way to get rid of this disease is to control the stimulating factors and these are given by Veterinary Services Act. The purpose of this Act is to consolidate and establish requirements in veterinary medical products, zoo-technical requirements and feeding stuff for regulating the veterinary profession.
In 2012, Veterinary Services Act given control rules and measures for African Horse Sickness. According to the rules, the foremost step is to control the movement of Equidae from the countries where there is an outbreak of AHS. There should be a ban on import of all equine species and those which are imported from AHS free countries, must be vaccinated with proper regularization. For that purposes, the census should be made for animal disease surveillance and it should be based on collecting thorough information with disease notification systems, obtaining proper livestock population and production data for assessing continental and regional food security and more importantly for animal health, providing guidelines for live animals traceability so as to facilitate competent authorities. There is another term used in this act i.e. crises centre. This is basically for animal disease crisis management and it provides incentives for AHS disease information and analysis. This term aims at risk management and supporting broad awareness, strengthening disease intelligence and analyzing the economic and social consequences of disease and its control. This socio-economic analysis is a much important factor in the case of Pakistan related to this disease due to dependence on Equidae.
The role of a veterinarian should be determined in prosecuting and investigating the area where horses, mules or donkeys are effected. He must initiate the census for liable to be infected, infected and dead Equidae. He must ensure census for those places too which are facilitating vector survival and adapting those proper measures to eradicate insects responsible for spread. Keep in mind that this disease does not affect humans but it transfers from animal to animal only. So every living and dead animal from the infected area should be examined by a veterinarian regularly. The safer ones must be kept in a separated protected place and in that specific region, any other movement should be prohibited. Those which are found dead should be burnt or disposed of according to Council Regulations for Health Rules. If AHS is confirmed in any individual animal then the only way is to kill it under official standards just like Glanders and epizootiological inquiry needs to be processed and under the observation of results, vaccine requirements are fulfilled by the provision of government and implementation of the owner.
This is not an uphill task to control the loss through AHS disease and needs only precautionary measures. There is the direct involvement of government, veterinarians and owners. Safety should be first priority and it accounts for ecological factors, metrological conditions, presence of vector, laboratory examination results and application of control measures.
The writer is a campus ambassador at PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi