Disease Incidence and Mortality Pattern of Migratory Sheep Flocks in Marwar Region of Rajasthan, India

Sheep migration is a traditional solution to seasonal unavailability of feed and water resources. However, the difficulties faced by nomadic shepherds during en route migration have not been clearly understood. Hence, the present study was designed with the objective to identify disease incidence and mortality pattern along with constraints faced by shepherds during en route migration in Marwar region of Rajasthan. The information on disease incidences [enterotoxaemia, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), sheep pox and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and abortion] and mortality rate were collected from 20 migratory sheep flocks, comprised of 3208 sheep during en route migration from December 2011 to June 2012. Average flock strength of migratory shepherds was 160 with smallest flock of 70 to largest flock of 310 sheep. Incidence of enterotoxaemia, FMD, sheep pox and PPR was observed to be 16.68, 9.26, 11.13 and 13.90%, respectively. The overall abortion and mortality rate of sheep flocks were 9.66 and 10.60%, respectively. There was significantly (p<0.001) higher incidence of diseases and mortality rate in young animals as compared to the adult animals. Major constraints perceived by the shepherds during en route migration were nutritional stress (95%), lack of availability of medicines (95%) and Veterinary facilities (90%), predators (65%), climatic stress (50%) and road accident (40%). Taken together, it may be concluded that enterotoxaemia incidence occurs mostly during en route migration and cause huge mortality. Further, nutritional stress together with lack of availability of medicines and Veterinary facilities aggravate the health problems. Thus, implementation of better nutritional and health management practices during en route migration could reduce the disease problems and mortality.