Ethno-Veterinary practices used for common health ailments of sheep and goat: A participatory assessment by the Raika pastoralist of Marwar Region, Rajasthan

Abstract

The Raika pastoralists of Rajasthan have a large network of traditional healer and make use a large variety of indigenous plants, minerals and animal products to cure their diseased animals. Therefore, the present study was designed to document and appraise ethno-veterinary practices followed by the Raika pastoral community to treat common health ailments of sheep and goat like diarrhea, bloat, jaundice and fever. The study was carried out at purposively selected Marwar region of Rajasthan and a total 120 Raika pastoralists were interviewed from the six villages of Pali and Jodhpur district on an open-ended interview schedule to document the ethno-veterinary practices. For participatory assessment of the identified ethno-veterinary practices, Quantification of Indigenous Knowledge (QuIK) was applied. The Raikas were using total 15 ethno-veterinary practices to cure four common health ailments. Use of alum and jaggery was found most effective to treat diarrhea, whereas, they used only alum to treat fever. They also used mixture of turmeric, acidic butter, tea and black salt to manage bloat in their animal most effectively. To cure Jaundice of animal, they perceived use of mixture of lemon, baking soda and pepper was more effective ethno-veterinary practice. Hence, pharmacodynamics of these ethno-veterinary practices may be studied before further replication and use.