Have you heard of parasite resistance to deworming medications? Probably. But, by and large, owners of working equids in certain developing countries have not. And the result is a growing problem of anthelmintic resistance in the working cart horse populations of countries like Ethiopia.

Ethiopian researchers have learned that the classic antiparasitic drugs ivermectin and especially fenbendazole are losing their efficacy in treating internal parasites in the northwest region of their country. And this, they said, is likely due to drug management errors resulting from a lack of education.

“Since most cart horse owners are poor and illiterate, they are less prepared to manage this problem,” said Seyoum Zewdu, MSc, DVM, of the Department of Paraclinical Studies in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Gondar, in Ethiopia. “So, the parasites will affect the health and welfare of the animal. Moreover, when drug resistance happens, it incurs further money losses for the owner as he or she searches for other control methods and deals with mortality and loss of economic power.”

Study Overview

In their study, Zewdu and his fellow researchers randomly selected 140 working horses in Gondar for parasite testing. They found 45 positive cases—32% of their selected sample