Documentation of Ethno Veterinary Practices in Selected Sites of Wolaita and Dawuro Zones, Ethiopia

Authors

  • Mesfin Mekonnen Moliso

Keywords:

animal diseases, ethno-veterinary, Dawuro, Ethiopia, traditional medicine

Abstract

To keep animals healthy, traditional healing practices have been applied for centuries and have been passed down orally from generation to generation. Rural tribal people generally depend on plants for curing their livestock due to the problem of animal health delivery system. In Ethiopia, the use of ethno veterinary practices to treat and control livestock diseases is an old and important practice. The field survey was carried out in Wolaita and Dawuro Zones of SNNPR, Ethiopia to document ethno veterinary practices in the area. A total of 89 individual healers were purposively selected and interviewed based on their knowledge of using traditional medicine to cure their animals. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze and summarize the ethno-botanical data. Forty plants, which have medicinal value against a total of 27 livestock diseases, were reported and botanically identified as belonging to various 25 plant families. Leaves (57.14%) were the major plant parts used in the study areas. The informants mostly practice oral drenching of plant preparations (77.36%). The age level of healers indicated that the majority were (60.7%) are above the age of 40. This study revealed that ethno-veterinary treatment is playing a significant contribution in treating animal diseases and parasites. Scientific investigations should be carried out to ascertain the effectiveness of identified plant species.

How to Cite

Mesfin Mekonnen Moliso. (2016). Documentation of Ethno Veterinary Practices in Selected Sites of Wolaita and Dawuro Zones, Ethiopia. Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, 16(D5), 27–33. Retrieved from https://journalofscience.org/index.php/GJSFR/article/view/1827

Documentation of Ethno Veterinary Practices in Selected Sites of Wolaita and Dawuro Zones, Ethiopia

Published

2016-03-15