Efficacy and impact of a health and welfare education programme for horse and donkey livestock owners in Ethiopia. (360G-Wellcome-080895_Z_06_Z)

The ways in which livestock owners use and acquire information is of great importance to animal health, welfare and productivity, particularly in developing countries. However, limited published work is available which evaluates the impact of educational interventions. We propose a project which will develop an education and knowledge dissemination programme for equid owners, using novel methods to determine the most effective way of delivering this education programme. This education programme will then be implemented to a wider audience with the aim of improving horse and donkey health, welfare and productivity of working equids in Ethiopia, a country with an equid population over 5.5 million. We will identify the most important areas of health that impact on equid productivity in the study area, and we will then evaluate the effectiveness of different knowledge dissemination interventions for increasing equid health care knowledge and promoting uptake of recommended new practices by owners. To achieve this we have several objectives Identification and prioritisation of areas of draught horse and donkey health that impact on productivity. This will involve engagement with various stakeholders including livestock keepers and animal health practitioners. Development of a variety of knowledge dissemination interventions for educating horse and donkey owners in Ethiopia. Interventions will be selected after consultation with stakeholders, but may include village meetings, visits to individual farmers and diagrammatic handouts. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of the different knowledge interventions for increasing the knowledge of livestock owners Identification of sources of information regarding horse and donkey care currently used by Ethiopian farmers and estimation of their relative importance. Implementation and widespread delivery of the most appropriate and effective knowledge dissemination intervention in an education programme aimed at improving horse and donkey health, welfare and productivity in Ethiopia.