Exploration of traditional plant-based medicines used for livestock ailments in northeastern Ethiopia

Livestock production is an integral part of the agricultural industry in Ethiopia. However, livestock diseases are a major hindrance especially among rural communities lacking access to conventional veterinary services. This study was conducted to explore medicinal plants and practices used to treat livestock ailments across varied agro-climatic zones in northeastern Ethiopia. Ethnoveterinary data was collected between December 2019 and July 2020 across three districts using a semi-structured questionnaire with a total of 120 informants. Chi-square and ANOVA were used to compute ethnoveterinary indices among agro-climates. A total of 95 plants in 44 families were used by the healers for treatments of 45 livestock ailments mostly collected from wild habitat (70.65%). The leaves (39.05%), and crushing and pounding were the major parts and modes of herbal preparations. The analysis unveiled a significant association between numbers of ethnoveterinary plant citations with sex (P= 0.001) and age categories (P=0.02). Also, considerable variations in medicinal plants distribution, Use Value (UV), Relative Frequency of Citations (RFC), and Fidelity Level (FL) were also observed among the studied agro-climates. Datura stramonium (UV= 0.85; FL=90.4%; RFCs=0.8) was the most often cited species to treat livestock ailments. Bloating (ICF= 0.87) and bloody diarrhea (ICF=0.85) were the most frequent livestock ailments. The studied districts are rich in medicinal floras and concomitant ethnoveterinary knowledge, and therefore essential to implement sustainable management and conservation of these plant genetic resources. (c) 2021 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.