Dwindling Ethnoveterinary Alternative Use Among Fulani Pastoralists: A Case Study

Abstract

EVM (Ethnoveterinary Medicine), the scientific term for traditional animal health care, encompasses the knowledge, skills, methods, practices, and beliefs about animal health care among members of a community. In Nigeria, pastoralists are known to treat animal diseases with herbs and other traditional medical practices before the advent of conventional medicine. EVM medical practice is widespread among pastoral herdsmen and village livestock keepers in Nigeria. While there is research recognition of the need to modernize and commercialize age-long tradition as herbal and EVM alternatives to current western veterinary medicine, it is a paradox that younger Fulani pastoralists are more in support of the use of packaged modern medication methods that are available, though expensive. This article is a 2016 study that sought to test EVK among Fulani pastoralists who have migrated to southwest Nigeria, specifically of the migrants of Eruwa, Ibarapa LGA, Oyo State Nigeria. The study area is sub-urban Eruwa town (7°32'59" N27°0'0"E), headquarters Ibarapa East LGA, Oyo State, South West Nigeria, where Fulani Pastoralists have settled for decades. Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools used in this study were semi-structured interviews, triangulation, and focus group discussions. A simple stratified sample collection method was used in the sample size determination. Two members of staff from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan rural field clinic-the Eruwa Veterinary Field Station EVFS served as key informants in identifying important clusters of livestock owners and entry points. Twenty (20) individual interviews and twenty (20) group interviews were carried out. This study has shown that Foot-and-Mouth Disease, CBPP, Skin disease, Trypanosomosis and Helminthosis were the major diseases/ health problems of epizootiological importance in the study area. Results indicate that there is rich EVK among elderly Fulani pastoralists in Eruwa, and poor knowledge of EVM among the younger generation. Conventional medicines have been so abused and thus creating problems of drug resistance. This is common among the pastoralists of Eruwa, as the conventional drug is available in the Kara cattle market they go weekly and they treat their animals themselves most of the time.