Ethnoveterinary medicine in Africa

Abstract

Local knowledge systems have won growing attention and respect within conventional science and in the international development community. Such systems have usually resulted from centuries of local people's empirical observation and experience and typically are highly ecologically sensitive. The information they embody and their associated materials and techniques can be of immense practical value in mounting cost-effective, socio-culturally and politically workable, environmentally benign, and thus sustainable, initiatives to improve human livelihoods and well-being. The present article overviews one pioneering branch of research and development for the continent of Africa: ethnoveterinary medicine. Indigenous healers, ethno-aetiologies, ethnopharmacology and toxicology, vaccination and surgical skills, and selected health-related husbandry practices are described. These data are then analysed from both social scientific and biological-technical perspectives, to identify limitations and potentials in putting African veterinary expertise to work in truly appropriate agricultural development. The authors conclude with recommendations for both immediate and future directions in the study and utilisation of this corpus of valuable, but endangered, knowledge.