Farmers Knowledge and Control Practices on Gastrointestinal Parasites of Horses in Maseru District, Lesotho

In spite of the increasing importance of horses in Lesotho, they are constantly confronted with several health threatening factors among which gastrointestinal parasites (GIPs) play a central role. The occurrence of GIPs is influenced by among other factors the husbandry practices which are assumed to be influenced by variation between agro-ecological zones (AEZs). The objective of this study was to assess the influence of AEZs on farmers demographic and socio-economic profile, knowledge and control of GIPs of horses. The structured questionnaire and focus group discussions were used to collect data on 144 farmers representing the three AEZs. The findings revealed that horses were mainly owned by men with grade 7 as the highest level of education. Infection by GIPs represents a serious health concern across the three AEZs and this can be justified by higher percentage of respondents in the lowlands (96.3%), foothills (100%) and mountains (100%) who reported infection by GIPs among their horses. Among other age groups, foals were highly susceptible to infection by GIPs and the most common type of GIP known among farming communities were nematodes. The majority of respondents do not deworm their horses except the few that deworm their horses with both ivermectin and fenbendazole. The results further confirm higher chances of overgrazing in the study areas as most respondents indicated that the grazing areas were shared between many villages. Majority of respondents across the three AEZs indicated that grazing alone did not provide enough nutrition even though few of them provided supplementary feeding to their horses and this suggests that horses in the study area were under fed. It is concluded that horses across the three AEZs are exposed to similar husbandry practices which are considered inadequate in the control of GIPs.