Keynote Lecture “Ethnoveterinary research in Benin – an overview”

Across Benin, local people typically rely on plant-based veterinary knowledge readily available to manage common animal health problems. Despite the ancient origin of these practices, formal ethnoveterinary research is still an emerging field in the country with most studies to date focusing on documenting plants used. The most comprehensive checklist includes 241 plant species (c. 9% of total flora of Benin) to treat 45 animals’ signs and diseases. Despite this rich diversity, ethnoveterinary flora has received little attention from chemists and pharmacologists. This is related to the inadequate funding for research and poor equipment in scientific laboratories. Therefore, the major challenge is to initiate a joint vibrant and robust research and development program on ethnoveterinary plants, notably those traditionally used to tackle emerging diseases like zoonosis, in order to find out their effectiveness but also to strengthen the human and technical capacities.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
16. November 2023