MR Alam
Department of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chittagong, Bangladesh
NG Gregory
The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Hatfield AL9 7TA, UK
MS Uddin
Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chittagong, Bangladesh
MA Jabbar
Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chittagong, Bangladesh
S Chowdhury
Department of Pathology and Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chittagong, Bangladesh
NC Debnath
Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chittagong, Bangladesh
Animal welfare, Cattle, Injury, Livestock market, Nose, Tail
Animal Health and Management
Cattle, Buffalo
In this paper, a nose rope is the term used for a rope passed through a hole in the septum and around the back of the head, a neck rope describes a rope that passed around the neck of the animal and was used for securing the animal to a head rail (doga) and a head rope is a rope that is secured to the animal as a head halter. A total of 560 cattle plus water buffalo were examined at two city livestock markets in Bangladesh (Sagorika in the Chittagong Division and Gabtali in the Dhaka Division). The markets were selected because they were large by national standards with a high proportion of their throughput coming from India. All 560 animals underwent a tail examination, and 357 had their noses examined. There were 288 imported cattle (Hariana 243, Exotic non- descriptive [ND] 45) and 80 cattle of local breed, and it was assumed that all 192 water buffalo were imported as relatively few water buffalo are bred within Bangladesh. At both markets, the animals were tethered alongside one another by neck ropes secured to a head rail. The head rails were made of bamboo and known locally as a ‘hyne’ or ‘doga’. There were up to 100 animals secured to each doga. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select individual animals for examination. Every second doga was chosen, and within each doga alternate animals were selected for examination with up to 30% of the animals within each doga chosen.
Examination of nose piercing: Noses were examined in 368 cattle and 192 water buffalo by a veterinarian. Of these, 254 cattle and 103 water buffalo had pierced noses and a detailed examination of injuries was undertaken. The approach used was based on the descriptions by Venugopalan (1997) and O’Connor (1980). The septum and nares were assessed for recent and longer-term injuries. Recent injuries included bleeding, hyperaemia, laceration and ulceration, whereas longer-term injuries were those that had healed with scarring. Where the perforation in the septum was no longer circular in shape (eg it had progressed to an ovate, keyhole, acuminate or cuneate shape) it was recorded as extended. Where the rope lesion at the lateral aspect of the nostril had formed an elongated slit it was recorded as extended. Pus at the injured areas was recorded where present. Injury severity was scored as low, moderate or severe. A severe injury was large, covering part of the septum or the side of nostril with an ulcer, pus or blood. A moderate injury was small with no extending tear or abrasion, and a low injury score was one where the injury in the septum had healed and did not extend in size beyond the original perforation or there was limited scarring at the nares. Where a head rope was present, the composition of the rope was recorded. Where a nose rope was not present, the septum was examined for a perforation and any associated injury where a nose rope would previously have been present. Assessment of the tail Tails were examined for injuries in 368 cattle and 192 water buffalo. They were assessed for number of kinks where adjacent vertebrae were misaligned, position of the kinks along the length of the tail, and shortening, which was presumed to be due to amputation in cases of tail-end necrosis or gangrene.
Statistical analysis: In the present study, different categorical explanatory variables (eg type of animals, type of nose ropes etc) were compared with categorical response variables (tail injury, nose injury etc). To find out the relationship between categorical explanatory and outcome variable, Pearson’s Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact tests were used. The recorded questionnaire data were entered into an Excel® 2000 spreadsheet (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA) and the collated data transferred to STATA (Stata Statistical Software Release 9.2, Stata Corp, City Texas, USA) and GraphPad® Software (www.graphpad.com/quickcalcs/index.cfm) for analysis
2010 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, 2010, 19: 295-300, ISSN: 0962-7286
Journal