Economic Contribution of Cart Horses to the Livelihoods of Families in Gondar Town Ethiopia

Equines are providing traction power and transport services, like pulling cart, packing and riding, at low cost in both rural and urban areas of Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Gondar city from November 2014 to April 2015 to assess major health problems and to investigate the economic contribution of cart horses to livelihood of the community. Cart horses were randomly selected from the study area. Observational study was also conducted and semi-structured questionnaire survey was administered to all cart horse owners. The study revealed that behavioral responses, skin coat and dental conditions were significantly associated with body condition and age of cart horses (p<0.05). Wound and musculoskeletal problem had no significant association with body condition and age of working horses. Young horses with good body conditions were more prone to wounds (75%) than the older horses with poor body conditions. The majority of the carthorse owners used their horses for transportation for long hours (> 8 hours) per a day, 5-6 days per week and loaded them 500-700 kg. The income in cash for the cart horse owners was recorded as 80-100 ETB per day. The current study indicated that the cart horse contribution to livelihood of communities is considerable. The working animals deserve better husbandry and veterinary care to sustain their contribution. We suggest a more detailed and systematic study be conducted in the study area to influence policy makers towards better regulation in animal welfare. Keywords: Cart horses, Economic contribution, Gondar, Ethiopia

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Antenatal Care Service among Married Women of Reproductive Age Group in Mizan Health Center, South West Ethiopia

Back ground: Antenatal care is a medical and general care that is provided to pregnant women during pregnancy. In Ethiopia as well as in the world maternal mortality is high. Mostly this occurred due to pregnancy related complication because of lack of ad equate antenatal care service. Objective: To assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers towards antenatal care service in Mizan health center. Methods:  Institutional based descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among married women of reproductive age group who came to Mizan health center from May to August 2014. A Total of 255 women were selected based on systematic random sampling technique after estimating the number of women who came to Mizan health center and they were interviewed by using interviewer administered questionnaire. The data was entered in to Epidata 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 17 for analysis. Finally descriptive analysis was done and data was presented by using tables. Result:  Majority (88.2%) of women know about antenatal care and the rest (11.8%) do not know about antenatal care.   About 70.6% of the respondents wanted to follow antenatal care and the remaining 29.4% of women do not want to follow antenatal care if they get pregnant due to negative attitude.  Less than half (47.9%) of women practiced antenatal care follow up during their pregnancy time. Conclusion: Knowledge and attitude of women towards antenatal care was comparatively in better position. But the practice of women was poor. Further research was recommended to identify factors which are associated with practice. Keywords: knowledge, attitude, practice, antenatal care, Miza