Indigenous practices for the control and treatment of ailments in Zimbabwe’s village poultry

E S Masimba, D T Mbiriri, M T Kashangura and T Mutibvu

Department of Animal Science, University of Zimbabwe,
P.O. Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
dmbiriri@agric.uz.ac.zw

Abstract

Most poor resourced communities depend on ethnoveterinary medicine for treating livestock diseases. A survey was carried out in Gutu district of Zimbabwe to establish the different ethnoveterinary practices used in poultry health management. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 200 households in four villages of Gutu district. Fifty households were randomly chosen per village.

About 64% of the respondents were male. More than fifty percent of the respondents had gone as far as secondary school. All households kept indigenous chickens with a mean number of 22.7 chickens per household. Other types of poultry kept included turkeys, guinea fowls and ducks. Diseases were acknowledged to be a constraint in poultry production. Ninety eight percent of the households relied on ethnoveterinary interventions only, in treating poultry diseases. Twelve medicinal plants were noted. Soot was also used as a remedy. Most of the remedies were used to treat more than one ailment.  Coccidiosis, respiratory problems and lice were among the health challenges recorded. Various modes of remedy application were employed by the households. This ethnoveterinary knowledge was mostly passed on orally from older to younger generations. It was recommended that a study be carried out, to diagnose poultry diseases found in the area.

Key words: Ethnoveterinary medicine, indigenous poultry, medicinal plants, poultry diseases, rural households

Introduction

According to the Word Health Organisation (WHO), at least 80% of people in developing countries depend largely on indigenous practices for the control and treatment of various diseases affecting both human beings and animals (Jabbar et al 2005). It was not until recently that more attention was drawn to these practices. Increased attention on ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) is justified because; it is accessible, easy to prepare and administer at little or no cost at all (Jabbar et al 2005). These practices may be the only option in areas where conventional services are economically unavailable or cannot effectively reach (Mathias and McCorkle 2004), many EVM practices do work and make sound veterinary sense (Schillhorn van Veen 1996). Herbal medicines are known to be broad spectrum and therefore may be a future answer to pathogen resistance to conventional drugs (Mwale et al 2005).

Most rural households in Africa and other continents keep poultry native to their areas, especially chickens. The major constraints in the production of poultry under rural settings include diseases, poor nutrition and predation (Guèye 1997; Mungube et al 2008). Rural farmers are aware of the need to keep their flocks in good health. However, conventional drugs are either unavailable or too expensive for these resource-poor farmers, hence their dependence on EVM. The use of herbs and other medicinal plants is an integral part of ethnoveterinary practices. It is interesting to note that a number of medicinal plants found in different countries are used to cure the same ailments in livestock.

Knowledge on these indigenous flock health management practices is passed on through oral education from older to younger generations. If not captured and documented, practices that are peculiar to certain ethnic groups or areas may be lost. The main objective of this study was to document ethnoveterinay practices employed by rural households in Gutu district of Zimbabwe to treat ailments in their poultry flocks.

Materials and methods

A total of 200 questionnaires were administered in Gutu district of Zimbabwe. Fifty households were randomly selected in four villages namely; Mutamba, Maotsa, Jinjika and Chiwara. Data were collected through direct interviews using the vernacular language (Shona), with key informants. Information gathered included; demographic data, types of poultry kept, production systems employed, common health problems, treatment used, plant parts used (where medicinal plants were used as remedy) and modes of application. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 16 software.

Results

Household demographics

Sixty three percent of the households were headed by males. All the respondents were Christians. The highest academic qualification held by most respondents was ordinary level education. Only 8.55% had attained tertiary education.

Poultry populations

Four poultry species reared in Gutu district: chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl and ducks. As shown in Table 1, every household kept village chickens. The mean number of chickens per household was 22.7 (Table 1). The second most popular was turkey followed by guinea fowl and the least in terms of numbers were ducks. Ninety eight percent of the households raised their flocks under the extensive production system with the remaining 2% under semi-extensive system.

Poultry flock health

All the farmers said that they faced disease challenges in their flocks especially during the summer season. Most respondents could not name the diseases they experienced in their flocks but could describe clinical symptoms. All the respondents stated coccidiosis as a problematic disease. Over 50% of the respondents stated that respiratory problems and also external parasites (lice) were common in their poultry flocks (Figure 2).

Flock health management

None of the households relied on conventional medicines alone in treating poultry diseases. Ninety five percent of the households used traditional medicines only whilst the rest employed a combination of traditional and conventional remedies. The knowledge of the ethnoveterinary practices was mostly passed down generations orally. Sources of EVM knowledge included grannies and parents (61.5%), friends (20.5%), neighbors (12.5%) and others (6.5%).

Most of the non-conventional treatment of ailments involved the use of plant parts except for the use of soot. Every household made use of Aloe vera. Over 95% of the households acknowledged the use of Sarcostemma viminale in treating ailments in poultry. The rest of the medicinal plants made use of are listed in Figure 3.

Plant part used was similar across all the four villages, implying this knowledge is common and generally shared among households within a common setting. Table 2 shows the different plant parts of the 12 plant species used.

Figure  3: Common remedial agents in poultry

The modes of application included giving fresh pieces of plant material, fermenting, drying, grinding, dissolving in drinking water and sprinkling birds. Most of the plants were dissolved in drinking water, including soot. Aloe vera could be given as freshly chopped pieces. As shown in Table 2, some plants, such as Aloe vera, Allium cepa, Allium sativam, Ficus exasperate and Erythrina abyssinica could be utilized through more than one mode of application.

About 85% of the remedies employed were used to treat more than one disease (Table 3). Only Lycopersicon esculentum and Cissus vitacea had one specific use each, treating eye problems and wounds, respectively. Eleven out of 13 remedies were used to treat coccidiosis. Ten out of 13 remedies were used to treat diarrhoea problems.

Discussion

Household demographics

The trend observed with regards to sex of household reflects a typical African setup where most households are headed by males. Actually, Mlambo and co-workers (2011) observed a similar frequency where 65% of households were headed by males. Findings contrary to this trend were however revealed in a related study by Muchadeyi et al (2004) where more than 80% of households were headed by females. Although in other studies Christianity was the most popular form of religion (Mwale et al 2005), a 100% belonging to Christianity observed in this study was remarkable. The level of education in this study area was higher than those in Mushagashe where only 1% of respondents had secondary education (Mwale et al 2005).

Poultry populations

Most households in communal and smallholder farming areas across the world raise indigenous chickens. Studies in Sudan revealed an average flock size of 18.8 birds per farmer (Khalafalla et al 2000). Muchadeyi et al (2004) reported an average flock size of 17 in a rural district of Zimbabwe. Mammo et al 2008 established a rather low flock average of 5.6 in Ethiopia. The reported flock average of 22.7 in this study is within the ranges of other flock sizes of 20.7 and 21.8 reported by Mlambo et al (2011) and Mwale et al (2005) respectively. Turkeys and guinea fowls are also found in appreciable numbers in most rural communities. However, the average flock size observed in this study of 5.29 is higher than the 3.8 reported for Mushagashe (Mwale et al 2005). Ducks are usually found in very small numbers probably be due to a constraint in availability of water bodies.

Poultry flock health

In a number of studies, Newcastle Disease (ND) and coccidiosis have been noted to be the most prevalent disease constraints in village chicken production (Matekaire and Bwakura 2004; Woolcock et al 2004). There was no positive identification of diseases in this study. Respondents mostly stated symptoms and these were classified into respiratory problems, diarrhoea, wounds, eye infections and cocciodisis. It was difficult to diagnose diseases based on the symptoms presented by respondents, a challenge experienced by other researchers (Mengesha et al 2011; Maphosa et al 2004). The fact that no respondent mentioned Newcastle disease among other diseases like fowl coryza and fowl typhoid which have been reported in other similar studies (Mwale et al 2005) does not mean that these are absent in the study area. In a study conducted by Mlambo et al (2011), households showed a good knowledge of diseases and they had their flocks vaccinated against ND. This is in sharp contrast with findings in this study. Farmers exhibited poor knowledge of poultry diseases and also their flocks were not vaccinated against any disease.

Poultry flock health management

The high dependence on EVM is not unique to this area. EVM is applied in all forms of livestock, and even to humans especially in the smallholder farming sector of Zimbabwe (Mwale et al 2005). No side effects in the use of various EV practices were reported. This fact is one of the reasons why most rural communities have confidence in indigenous health management practices. The use of medicinal plants is an integral part of EVM (Sindhu et al 2010). The aloe species of plants, due to their pharmacological properties and wide distribution are the most commonly used plant species (Mwale et al 2005). The observed use of Aloe vera, soot, Euphorbia matabelensis, Parinaria curatefollia, Albizia gummisera and Capsicum annum in the treatment of coccidiosis is consistent with observations by Mwale et al (2005). The same researchers also reported the use of tomato and S. viminale in treating eye and gastrointestinal tract problems, respectively. E. abyssinica reported herein as used in the treatment of diarrheal problems has been noted by Lagu and Kayanja (2010) as applied as an antihelminth in South Western Uganda. In Nigeria, Fajimi and Taiwo (2004) reported A. cepa and F. exasperate to be used in the control of helminthes and external parasites. This is in close association with the uses of these plants as clearly shown by this study.

Conclusions and recommendations

• Rural households in Gutu district rear indigenous poultry and make extensive use of EVM in their poultry health management practices. From this study, it was recommended that further studies on the efficacy of less studied medicinal plant species be carried out. There is also a need to carry out a diagnostic study to identify the diseases whose symptoms have been documented.

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Received 19 Aug 2011; Accepted 23 October 2011; Published 2 December 2011

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