Handling animal diseases without drugs

Parasites have a negative effect on livestock. Apart from sucking their blood and other fluids from them, some transmit diseases.

A range of parasites are known for causing loss to livestock farmers by lowering quality and quantity of products or even total loss in terms of death.

There are various drugs that can be used to control these parasites. However, they are costly for smallholder farmers and pose a health risk if not properly applied as many of these farmers are not skilled enough on how to apply them.
Therefore, the smallholder farmers tend to opt for traditional ways or non-chemical methods to deal with parasites and diseases.

Cure
John Bizimana, who has five heads of cattle, burns dry dung to smoke his cattle in the morning and in the evening. According to him, the smoking helps to prevent tsetse flies from sucking the cows.

“I don’t spend money on buying chemicals to spray my cattle and I only spend on deworming,” he says.
In the same way, Kerement Okware in Mukono District uses Tephrosia leaves to control worms and ticks in goats and cattle. He grinds fresh Tephrosia leaves and uses them to scrub the animal to control ticks. He scrubs the whole animal as he emphasises on the parts known to harbour ticks; like around the udder, under the tail and around the ears. He says after this the ticks die within 30 minutes, he repeats the “dose” once a week.

To control worms, Okware boils Tephrosia leaves in a specific volume of water for about one hour. When boiling, he covers the pan to ensure that the herb does not lose its curative power.

He lets the mixture cool, squeezes the leaves to obtain a solution. He gives half a litre (500mls) to a litre (1,000mls) of the liquid to each animal above six months of age. For calves of two and half months, he gives 300mls and repeats the “dose” once a month.

Expert opinion
Dr Immaculate Nakalembe of Makerere University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, terms Okware’s and Bizimana’s methods as ethno-veterinary medicine. She notes that this ethno-veterinary medicine (traditional remedies) refers to people’s knowledge, skills, methods, practices and beliefs about the care for their animals.

Traditional remedies are affordable, readily and easily obtained. Non-chemical methods or herbs can be used to control parasites like ticks, lice, flies, fleas and mites and the traditional medicine may help to boost the immune system of the animals.
Dr Nakalembe also notes that parasites do not give the animals ample time to feed which leads to reduced yields.
“Parasites affect the quality of hides and skin. They also cause an anaemic condition, which makes the animals look pale and weak. This can be observed on the eyes, skin, tongue and mucus membrane,” she says.

Farmers can control the parasites with these concoctions as they make parasites starve to death. On the host, one can use ethno-botanical suspensions prepared from one or more of plants like vernonia or red pepper to kill ticks.

“Re-infestation can be prevented through fumigation of infected cattle with smoke derived from burning ethno-botanical products, burning pasture, rotational grazing (ethno-practices), and livestock quarantine,”

The parasites can also be controlled by smearing animal bodies with substances like wood ash or aloe vera leaves, or using hand picking method. However, handpicking is applicable on a small farm.

Avert
Nakalembe explains that tsetse flies can be managed by using repellents (the smell) from Chrysanthemum cineraria folium plant or smoke from cow dung.

“Ticks and flies can as well be checked through burning seeds of Ricinus communis, Combopogon citratus (lemon grass) to create smoke or planting Thamnosma rhodesica and Neem trees around the paddocks,” she notes.
She adds that mites and fleas can be controlled by smearing the animal’s body with sorghum powder, or using aloe vera leaves, ash and red pepper.

“Snakes can be averted by the use of Annona senegalensis roots soaked in water then sprinkled in a poultry house or a paddock. They can also be turned away by planting Euphorbia and lemon grass around the farm or using sliced garlic,” she explains.

Treat
For internal worms, according to her, a farmer can deworm using a mixture of Moringa oleifera tree leaves, Warbugia ugandesis (mukuzanume), Incanium, Ricinus communis-anthelmintic, erythrina Abyssinia plant extracts (omuhirigiti).

Tape worms and gape worms can be dewormed using erythrina Abyssinia (ekiko), Nicotiana tabacum solution and salt solution. For cases of liver flukes, a farmer can use Euphorbia candelabrum, or ash mixed with V. amagadalina leaves and salt to drench the animal.

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