Traditional veterinary medicine in the Alice district of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

Resource-poor farmers in rural and peri-urban areas have limited access to veterinary care in terms of support services (from state and private veterinarian and animal health technicians), information about the prevention and treatment of livestock diseases, and preventative and therapeutic veterinary medicines. This results in reduced productivity and in livestock disease and deaths, which is a great burden on these farmers, who can least afford the loss of their animals. There is a need to encourage disadvantaged farmers to use available resources and methods, at minimal cost, and to improve their productivity. One of these resources is ethnoveterinary medicine. A list of 53 plants used as veterinary medicines by stock farmers in the Alice district in the Eastern Cape is presented together with their preparation and methods of administration.