National Inventory of Medicinal Plants Used to Treat Sheep and Goats Diseasesin Benin (West Africa): Effect of Socioeconomic and Environmental Factors

Abstract Background: Small ruminant health problems still represent a major constraint in Benin. Thus, to treat goats and sheep diseases, breeders use medicinal plants. However, little scientific work has been done on the traditional knowledge of these plants.The specific objectives of the current study were (i) to document the traditional knowledge regarding the disease groups treated and the medicinalplants used in the health and zootechnical management of small ruminants in Benin and (ii) to assess the effect of sex, ethnicity, agroecological zone and herd sizeassociatedwith them. Methods: To achieve these objectives, an ethnoveterinary survey was conducted in different agroecological zones from September 2018 to February 2019. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 506 breeders and farmers and took into account the identity of the respondents, the plants used to treat the ailmentsfor improving the productivity of sheep and goats, the parts used and the method of preparation of the recipes. The data were analyzed through the calculation the Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC), Fidelity Level (FL), and Consensus Factor of the Informant (CFI). Descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses were applied to our data using the software R and Minitab. The symptoms recordedfrom the respondents were categorized into 10 disorder groups using the second version of the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC). Results: Ten (10) categories of disorders were treated by the people surveyed. These are mainly disorders of the digestive system (D) (49.34%) and disorders related to pregnancy and parturition (W) (20.15%). A total of 101 species medicinal plantsbelonging to 42 families and 90 genera were recorded. The most represented families are Leguminosae (21.57%) and Euphorbiaceae (6.86%). The most cited speciesare Zanthoxylumzanthoxyloides (Lam.) Watermann, Khayasenegalensis (Desr.) A. Juss, Strigahermonthica (DeliIe) Benth. and Adansoniadigitata L. Sex, ethnicity, agroecological zone and herd size are the socioeconomic and environmental factors that influence the level of ethnoveterinary knowledge. Conclusions: Results showedthe high diversity of medicinal species used to treat small ruminant’sdiseasesin Benin. Chemical and biological analyzes are needed to test the effectiveness of the main inventoried plants. Keywords : Ethnoveterinary, sheep, goats, Benin.