Next time while attending a wedding ceremony be cautious as the horses and the tongas driven by them as part of the celebration paraphernalia may be harmful due to the detection of glanders — a fatal disease for both humans and animals.
This illegal activity of plying tongas continues to be in practice in the city even though the civic bodies of Delhi prohibits the use of horse-drawn tongas.
Glanders pose a threat to human life as it can be transmitted to humans through animals.
Keeping in mind the livelihoods of owners of equines and bulls, animal activists have been encouraged to replace the animals plying their carts with battery-operated e-rickshaws.
The National Research Centre on Equines of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR-NRCE) has identified three horses, used illegally to ply tongas in the national Capital, to be positive for glanders, a fatal disease for both humans and animals.
The samples of the horses were collected and subsequently submitted to ICAR-NRCE by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India.
“The use of horses to pull tongas and for rides and weddings is harmful not only to the horses — who are often worked to death — but also to humans because they are a major traffic and health hazard.
To protect horses and people, horses must be removed from Delhi’s roads,” said PETA India Veterinary Officer Dr Kundan Joshi.
The ICAR-NRCE has asked the Delhi Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying to bring equine movement in and around the area of concern under strict regulation and surveillance. The department has also been asked to address the situation of glanders disease in the region in accordance with The Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Act, 2009.
PETA highlighted that despite them pointing out as many as 40 positive cases of glanders in 2018, eight in 2019 and one in 2020, no action by the authorities were taken to prohibit this illegal plying of tonga by horses.
“The use of horses to pull tongas and for rides and weddings is harmful not only to the horses - who are often worked to death - but also to humans because they are a major traffic and health hazard. To protect horses and people, horses must be removed from Delhi’s roads,” said PETA India Veterinary Officer Dr Kundan Joshi.
Director of Veterinary Services Dr Mini Aravindam said, “Since 2010 tongas are illegal to be used in Delhi, but still the practice is continuing. Glanders is a bacterial disease caused by Burkholderia mallei mainly affecting horses, and can be also seen in mules and donkeys. This disease is contagious and it can be an acute or chronic, usually fatal disease for horses.”
Elaborating on the transmission of the disease from animals to humans, posing a threat to human life, she said, “This is a contagious disease and people handling infected animals like tonga riders and groomers will be infected as well as it is a zoonotic disease. Hence, it is fatal for humans too. It spreads through nasal discharge, or any other purulent discharge from the nodules formed on the skin of the horses.”
PETA pointed out the flouting of rules and urged the Government to be vigilant of such illegal activities. Dr Mina underscored that the only solution to this problem is the Government taking the appropriate actions to prevent such things from happening.
“Usually the Government has to take action, detection, isolation and culling of infected animals and eradicate this disease. This is the only measure, as there is no treatment. There is no vaccine against glanders. Time to time blood tests can help in identification and prevention of disease, once identified then Government protocol to eradicate the disease has to be followed,” she added.
