The Socioeconomic Impact of Diseases of Working Equids in Low and Middle-Income Countries: A Critical Review.
Authors: Bonsi Marta, Anderson Neil E, Carder Gemma
Journal: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
Summary
# Editorial Summary Working equids represent a critical economic and food security asset for vulnerable communities across low- and middle-income countries, yet disease in these populations remains substantially under-researched despite profound implications for both animal welfare and dependent human livelihoods. Bonsi, Anderson and Carder conducted a critical literature review across five major databases, identifying just 20 relevant publications that specifically examined the socioeconomic impacts of equine disease in LMICs—a striking scarcity that itself underscores the policy neglect facing this sector. Their findings confirm that disease in working equids creates cascading detrimental effects across multiple domains: compromised animal welfare, reduced human income and food security, and broader community health consequences, yet the evidence base remains geographically sparse and concentrated on only a handful of conditions. The authors advocate adoption of a One Health framework to better characterise the bidirectional relationships between equid health, human wellbeing and livelihood stability—an approach that could help translate fragmented research into actionable policy within government and international organisations currently treating working equids as peripheral to animal health priorities. For equine practitioners working in or supporting communities in LMICs, this review validates what many observe clinically: that preventative health interventions and disease management in working equids warrant substantially greater investment and research attention as foundational to sustainable development and poverty reduction.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Working equid health is inseparable from community livelihoods in LMICs; disease prevention and treatment directly impact human food security and economic survival
- •Advocate for equids in policy discussions and resource allocation—they remain underrepresented despite their critical role in vulnerable communities
- •Adopt One Health thinking: equid disease management should be framed within broader human and community health contexts to gain policy traction and funding
Key Findings
- •Diseases of working equids have detrimental socioeconomic effects on communities in low- and middle-income countries
- •Working equids are neglected in animal health policies and interventions despite providing crucial livelihood support
- •Research on equid disease socioeconomic impact is under-researched and restricted to few diseases and geographical settings
- •One Health approach can clarify links between equid health, human wellbeing, and livelihoods to facilitate policy translation