Ethnoveterinary knowledge of sheep and goat farmers in Benin (West Africa): effect of socioeconomic and environmental factors

Sheep and goats are two of the main animal species raised in Benin and one of the main sources of income for people living in rural areas. Faced with the inaccessibility of synthetic veterinary products and their low purchasing power, the majority of breeders use ethnoveterinary practices to treat small ruminants diseases. The specific objectives of the current study were (1) to document the traditional knowledge regarding the disorder groups treated and the medicinal plants used in the health and zootechnical management of small ruminants in Benin and (2) to assess the effect of gender, ethnicity, agro-ecological zone and herd size associated with them. To achieve these objectives, an ethnoveterinary survey was conducted in different agro-ecological zones from September 2018 to February 2019. A questionnaire was administered to 506 breeders. The data were analyzed through calculation of the Fidelity Level (FL), Cultural Importance Index (CI) and Informant Consensus Factor (ICF). Ten disorder groups were treated by the people surveyed. These were mainly digestive disorders (D) and reproductive disorders (W), both presenting a ICF value of 0.8. A total of 101 medicinal plants belonging to 42 families and 90 genera were recorded. Spondias mombin, Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides and Khaya senegalensis were the most important plants with CI values of 0.208, 0.125 and 0.121, respectively. Gender, ethnicity, agro-ecological zone and flocks size were the socioeconomic and environmental factors that significantly influenced the level of ethnoveterinary knowledge. Chemical and biological analysis are needed on less studied plants such as, Striga hermonthica, Crossopteryx febrifuga, Elaeis guineensis and Momordica charantia.