Traditional medicine in the treatment of bovine diseases in Northern Côte d'Ivoire

Traditional practices involved in veterinary care are common, but are gradually disappearing because they are not being passed on to the younger generation. The present study aims to safeguard and enhance, through documentation, the knowledge as well as the ethno-medicinal veterinary practices rich in recipes, which tend to be lost or even disappear. Thus, an ethnoveterinary survey, conducted in the North of Côte d'Ivoire among 50 livestock breeders in three sub-prefectures of the Ferkessédougou department, reveals 34 types of recipes using 25 species of plants divided into 17 families and 21 genera. The most dominant families are the Meliaceae (23.53%). Among the organs of all the listed plants, the leaves are the most used (32.43%), and the majority of the remedies are obtained by decoction (56.67%). Most of the diseases treated are diarrhoea and malaria, with a rate of 17.07%; stomach aches, rum, foot and mouth disease and intestinal worms, each representing 7.31%. The oral route is the most commonly used method of administration (93%). The results obtained may constitute a database for further research that could reveal the efficacy of these plants.