Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, 1993

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON ETHNOVETERINARY MEDICINE IN NORTHERN NIGERIA - Paul Leeflang

The Fulani are herdsmen of Northern Nigeria. For generations they have been moving their cattle in an annual migration pattern in search of water. The tracks are chosen carefully, however: tsetse-fly-infected areas are avoided. In his ten years of experience in Nigeria's veterinary sector--part of this time as special officer in charge of eradicating rinderpest--the author saw numerous examples of indigenous knowledge and practices that will be useful for the future development of animal health and production.

The livestock owners of Northern Nigeria are predominantly of the Fulani tribe. Originally they were all pastoralists; they had no access to land and were forced to adopt a nomadic lifestyle. At present the Fulani are becoming more and more integrated into rural and urban communities. All indigenous knowledge and practices regarding cattle and other ruminants in Northern Nigeria can therefore be found among the Fulani. They have specific knowledge of the epidemiology and gross pathology of the diseases and ailments that affect cattle, sheep and goats. This information circulates freely among herdsmen and farmers and is relatively easy for outsiders to obtain.

Contagious diseases

Contagious diseases appear to be well understood by the Fulani. Judging by the actions they take, they must know about animal-to-animal transmission. When a contagious disease strikes, the Fulani separate their sick from their healthy animals. They warn neighbouring herders and make arrangements to use separate rangeland and watering places. On the basis of this tradition, the veterinary service of the former Northern Nigerian government in the 1950s designated special routes for cattle being traded or sent to slaughter. The aim was to prevent contact between the national herd and cattle with an unknown history.

Anytime an outbreak of rinderpest or contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) occurred, the Fulani would not graze their cattle in the affected areas for two months. Pastures infected with endemic diseases such as blackwater and anthrax were not used for grazing for two years. Places where animals had died from these diseases would be covered with thorn bushes in order to prevent healthy cattle from grazing.

The Fulani had no effective cure for rinderpest. Knowing that they might lose a number of diseased animals every year, their herds included a surplus to compensate for losses. The Inter-African Rinderpest Eradication Campaign JP15, which was carried out in Nigeria from 1962 to 1967, met with a positive response and full cooperation from local cattle-owners. They saw it as relieving them of a major problem. After we had succeeded in eradicating rinderpest in Nigeria, the Fulani began--quite to our surprise--to sell more cattle than ever before, including female animals. The economically motivated practice of owning surplus animals as insurance against this disease was no longer necessary. Meanwhile, however, Western scientists concerned about overgrazing in Africa blamed us for the assumed increase in the livestock population.

Local vaccination practices

The Fulani's response to foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) illustrates how indigenous knowledge sometimes outstrips contemporary Western science. Fulani sometimes move their cattle upwind of infected herds to prevent the disease from spreading, and sometimes they move them downwind to expose the animals to FMD, knowing that a mild case of the disease will not be fatal and will confer immunity. Western scientists learned that the FMD virus could be aerially transmitted over long distances only after recent outbreaks of the disease in Europe.

Nigerian cattle-owners know that the fluid in the tongue blisters of animals infected with FMD is infectious to other animals. To control the spread of the disease, they collect this fluid, dip a tree thorn in it, and scratch the tongue epithelium of apparently healthy animals in order to vaccinate them.

Pastoralists can also be very good at diagnosing diseases. One day, while engaged in a campaign to eradicate bovine pleuro-pneumonia, we slaughtered all affected animals in a particular region, paying compensation to the farmers for lost livestock. One farmer insisted that we slaughter a specific animal in which we could not see any sign of disease. So we made a deal with the farmer. We would slaughter the animal, but pay compensation only if tests revealed afterward that it had indeed been infected. The farmer was right, and although embarassed, we happily paid compensation.

Vaccination against CBPP is standard procedure for the Fulani. They slice lung tissue from a diseased animal and implant it under the skin on the foreheads of their cattle, sealing the incisions with mud.

Carefully chosen tracks

Nigerian Fulani appreciate the role of insects in the spread of disease. Trypanosomiasis is linked to tsetse fly bites, whereas ticks are known to transmit other blood diseases. Common preventive measures among the Fulani include applying effective home-made fly repellents, lighting smudge fires to drive off insects, and avoiding infested grazing areas and shade trees. The Fulani have special ways of controlling ticks. They feed host animals salty plants so that ticks fall off; they pick off ticks and burn them; and they burn off infested rangeland.

The Fulani of Nigeria had an annual migration pattern, a practice also known as transhumance. One reason for this traditional migration was to avoid trypanosome infection. In the rainy season, cattle would be brought to the Fulani's ancestral homeland in the Sudan zone, where tsetse flies are found only among river vegetation. As the dry season advances, however, the grass in this zone quickly dries up and disappears and water supplies shrink or disappear as well. The Fulani would then move their cattle southwards, following disease-free tracks that had been scouted in advance by one of their members. This is why, in the rainy season, you would find millions of cattle in the subhumid Guinea zones, where grass and water were still abundant. This migration forced cattle to traverse the savannah tsetse-fly belts, however, and thus risk exposure to infection with trypanosomes. The subhumid zones are also infested with riverine tsetse flies. The Fulani would therefore allow their animals to spend only very short times at watering places with forest or bush vegetation.

As soon as the rains begin again, the savannah tsetse fly becomes more widespread in the Guinea zones. Cattle-owners would then be anxious to take their cattle back to the Sudan zone, and would cover distances of 500 km and more. Fresh grasses and crop residues would provide the necessary fodder.

Primary Animal Health Care

The author has been involved for a number of years in planning the reorganisation of primary animal health care in Africa. At present veterinary services cannot effectively reach remote and/or nomadic cattle-owners, and even where this would be possible, they are not equipped to do so. In Nigeria, we worked with veterinary assistants, employed by the local authorities, who knew their area well and all the cattle-owners in it. They mediated between the cattle-owners and the government veterinarians. In other countries, teams of auxiliary veterinary workers have been promoted as a way of saving on government personnel and transport and other costs of livestock services. The next step is then to stimulate cattle-owners to form their own associations, and thus to become self-reliant in animal health care. A cattle-owners' association can choose one of its own members to represent the rest in dealings with veterinary service personnel.

The government veterinary service must retain responsibility for preventing, controlling and eradicating contagious diseases and for matters of public health. Other veterinary activities can be left to an auxiliary staff and to the cattle-owners themselves, guided by extension programmes. By communicating with pastoralists in this way, exchanging information and sharing experiences, planners and policy-makers become able to offer assistance and plan interventions that are appropriate in social, cultural, economic and technological terms, and are thus sustainable. Optimal use is made of indigenous knowledge, and government personnel and development workers become aware of knowledge that could lead to new discoveries in veterinary medicine. It is therefore important that programmes be flexible enough to allow cattle-owners to continue their own traditional activities while at the same time making use of modern treatments.

Ethnoveterinary research

One of the most positive ways to help planners and development organisations to find workable solutions to problems of tropical animal health and production is to conduct research on indigenous veterinary medicine and to disseminate the findings. More appreciation of indigenous veterinary skills and practices and greater sensitivity towards local knowledge systems will also help planners and development organisations to see animal health and production through the eyes of the people whom their programmes are supposed to benefit. Development programmes can be better adapted to local problems and therefore become more likely to yield sustainable results. Insight into local knowledge systems also improves communication with livestock-owners and facilitates their participation in decision-making.

Dr. P. Leeflang is a veterinarian by training. He worked as special veterinary officer in charge of eradicating rinderpest in Northern Nigeria. Later he was given the job of founding a faculty of veterinary medicine at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. Address: Groenoord 66, 2401 AG Alphen a/d Rijn, The Netherlands.

BOX

The field of ethnoveterinary medicine has recently been well described in an article by C.M McCorkle and E. Mathias-Mundy. It gives an overview of this pioneering branch of research and development for the continent of Africa. Indigenous knowledge of healing, surgery, disease etiology, pharmacology, toxicology, and vaccination is presented, together with selected health-related animal husbandry practices. This data is then analysed from the points of view of both social science and biology-technology. The aim is to explore the possibilities of applying African veterinary expertise in the service of truly appropriate agricultural development. The authors conclude by recommending immediate and future directions for the study and application of this body of valuable, but endangered knowledge.

C.M. McCorkle and E. Mathias-Mundy (1992), 'Ethnoveterinary Medicine in Africa', in Africa, Journal of the International African Institute, London, 62, pp. 59-93.

The same authors also prepared an annotated bibiography. E. Mathias-Mundy and C.M. McCorkle (1989) Ethnoveterinary Medicine; an annotated bibliography. Bibliographies in Technology and Social Change no. 6, Ames, Iowa: Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Agricultural and Rural Development (CIKARD), Iowa State University Research Foundation, 209 pages.

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