Traditional veterinary medicines should be promoted

03 Feb, 2019 - 00:02 0 Views
Traditional veterinary medicines should be promoted

The Sunday News

Mhlupheki Dube

THE spiralling cost of veterinary medicines and drugs coupled with the inaccessibility of the same to the general public particularly the smallholder farmer rejuvenates the need for the nation in general and livestock farmers in particular to seriously consider having a strong conversation around the promotion and use of traditional veterinary medicines and methods.

It is an indisputable fact that there are some traditional veterinary medicines that most smallholder livestock farmers have been using since time immemorial with noted success. It is my humble view that such kinds of traditional veterinary medicines and methods which have been used and observed countless times and result in a positive outcome should be documented and promoted alongside conventional veterinary drugs.

One typical example which comes into my mind regarding traditional veterinary drugs is one herb which is widely used by communal smallholder livestock farmers to induce a cow to expel a retained placenta. The plant or herb is known in isiNdebele as isikhukhukhu with a possibility of other names depending on which part of Matabeleland you are from.

I do not have the English name or botanical name for this herb. The herb is put in water and the resulted liquid given to the cow with the retained afterbirth and in less than an hour the cow will drop the afterbirth. Now retention of the afterbirth is a very common occurrence among farmers and it can cause a lot of discomfort to the farmer. Ideally, the cow should be able to eventually expel the retained afterbirth within 24hrs.

However, the sight of your cow moving around with dangling birth residues is not only unpleasant but it causes discomfort to the cow as these dangling residues can be caught on thorn bushes and cause pain to the cow as it tries to extricate itself. Also dogs may become a menace to the cow trying to feed on the dangling afterbirth.

Beyond 24hrs with the afterbirth still not expelled it becomes necessary for the cow to be assisted either physically or through a drug which will induce the cow to drop the afterbirth. Farmers have also been known to use traditional veterinary herbs to treat septic wounds instead of the conventional wound ointments and powders.

The import of this submission therefore is that in cases where it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that a particular herb works to treat a certain ailment, it should be documented and promoted for wider use. It should not just be discounted and dismissed on the basis of not being in line with conventional veterinary medicinal practices. It is also sane to argue that use of traditional veterinary medicines can help to reduce the overuse or abuse of antibiotics by livestock farmers.

It is common knowledge that extensive use of antibiotics by livestock farmers is becoming a reason for concern within the realm of public health as the residues of antibiotics in livestock products find their way into the human system through consumption of beef and other livestock products. This may cause the affected persons to develop resistance to antibiotic based drugs that they may need to use in future.

However, this advocacy for promotion of traditional veterinary medicines should not be misconstrued to mean a wholesale adoption of every other unscrutinised herb or practices as some of these practices can be so crude and cruel. I have seen animals with a ring of burning around their eyes ostensibly to cure an eye infection on the particular animal.

This is very common in places such as Nkayi and Lupane but clearly executed with disregard to the cruel pain on the animal. Therefore it could help if documentation enthusiasts can do a catalogue of traditional veterinary medicines and practices that have been observed to work and then these can be promoted. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.

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