Prophylactic Acts and Ethnoveterinary Medicine for Sick Cattle in Few Cow Farming in the Wilaya of Skikda ( Northeastern Algeria )

Abstract

A sample of 130 dairy cattle farms distributed in twenty communes of the wilaya of Skikda located in the North East of Algeria was the subject of investigations on the prophylactic acts during 3 agricultural campaigns and on the therapeutic methods adopted by the breeders when diseases appear in their herds as well as knowledge of traditional remedies based on medicinal plants used in dairy cattle farming to treat certain diseases. Concerning prophylactic acts, the regular monitoring of internal and external parasitism of animals practiced respectively in 58.6% and 82.2% of farms surveyed is significant compared to other regions of the country. On the other hand, vaccination against rabies is only practiced in 25.5% of farms. While the screening operations for tuberculosis and brucellosis were only carried out in 38.2% of cases. The breeders surveyed in the wilaya of Skikda adopt different strategies to try to treat their sick animals: 65.4% of ‘among them call on the veterinarian while 18.5% try to treat their sick animals themselves with the use of medicinal plants against certain diseases and other breeders use drugs and medicinal plants at the same time to accelerate healing for fear of veterinary costs. In terms of ethnobotany, the 20 plant species used in the composition of 24 traditional remedies to treat various livestock diseases have shown that the aerial part of the plant is the most used part (65%) and the form of use the most. the most widespread is the infusion (50%). It seems important to encourage scientific research in order to identify the traditional remedies used in ethnoveterinary medicine and to test their effectiveness.