Dominant bacterial diseases in the extensive and semi-intensive animal breeding and their treatment method by ethnoveterinary medicine in Benin

Article history: Received on: 29/06/2015 Revised on: 19/09/2015 Accepted on: 27/12/2015 Available online: 30/04/2016 In Africa, various medicines are used in animal diseases treatment. This study aims to identify the medicinal plants that are often used to cure bacterial diseases in domestic animals, in order to promote their rational and sustainable use. The work was performed by working with 787 breeders in the 8 agro-ecological zones of Benin, from June to December 2013. An ethnobotanical survey has identified 32 medicinal plants species among which Afzelia africana, Crossopteryx febrifuga, Albizia chevalieri, Khaya senegalensis, Mangifera indica and Entada africana are used for bovine pasteurellosis. The bronchitis is treated by 11 species of medicinal plants which include Allium sativum, Garcinia kola, Terminalia laxiflora, Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides and Detarium microcarpum. For infectious coryza treatment, 8 plants have been identified among which, we have Securinega virosa, Capsicum annuum, Anacardium occidentale and Vitellaria paradoxa. About cutaneous streptothricosis, 3 plants (Zea mays, Piliostigma thonningii and Parkia biglobosa) were cited for its treatment. Contagious bovine peripneumonia is treated by 3 plants (Tamarindus indica, Oxythenanthera abyssinica and Khaya senegalensis). Avian salmonellosis is also treated by 3 plants (Bridelia ferruginea, Cissus quadrangularis and Ocimum gratissimum). Concerning Blackleg and enterotoxemia, they are respectively treated by Aganope stulhmannii and Ocimum gratissimum.


INTRODUCTION
Animal diseases are serious problem for livestock development.In African sub-Saharan zone, livestock production is confronted with diseases from various origins.This explains the drops not only of production but also of exaggerated import of meat products within the years despite the contribution of the livestock (25%) in the primary sector.Breeders' difficulties in animals' health care are related to the high cost of conventional medicine and their availability.Several strategies are implementing to revive of agricultural sector in Benin.So, to deal with animals' diseases, most breeders in developing countries use traditional herbal medicine.In view to value this .traditional practice, Ogni et al. (2014) have listed 6 dominant parasitical diseases treated by 67 medicinal plants in breeding in Benin.Nowadays, Medicinal plants are widely used in traditional medicine around the world.In addition, there are relatively lower incidences of adverse reactions of these remedies, compared with modern conventional pharmaceutical practices (Pahlaviani et al., 2013).Antimicrobial properties of medicinal plants are increasingly reported from different parts of the world (Pahlaviani et al., 2013).Considering the frequent cases of bacteria resistance to conventional antibiotics used around the world (Chin et al., 2002 ;Bénoît et al., 2003;Abdullah et al., 2005), it is important to resort to medicinal plants use for the dominant bacterial diseases in Benin.Thus, the present study aims to: a) evaluate the distribution of the dominant bacterial diseases related to each agroecological zones; b) identify medicinal plants used for their treatment and c) check off different recipes used in these treatments.

Areas of study
This work was done in the eight agro-ecological areas of Benin.In each agro-ecological area, municipalities were selected using the statistic of livestock registered according to CountryStat (2014).A total of 38 municipalities were chosen as it is shown on figure 1.Each municipality included in the study was selected according to breeders whose livestock gathers at least twenty animals (all species).

Data collection
Retrospective study was done from June to December 2013 in order to collect data on the diseases that occurred in livestock from 2009 to 2013.The technique of remembrance was used to collect data.A total of 787 breeders (89.45% men and 10.55% women) were included in the survey.The breeders were selected, taking into account their availability and accessibility to .answer the questionnaire.In each livestock, breeders had heterogeneous species of animals and practicing the semi-intensive or extensive management system.Data collection was focused on traditional treatment used by breeders to prevent or treat diseases of livestock.To perform the survey, a questionnaire was used to collect data about breeder's identity, bacterial disease occurred in the herd from 2009 to 2013, main diseases occurred these last five years, origin of the main bacterial diseases, the period of which the infection occurred and the plants or medicine used to treat animals.Animal diseases occurring in the livestock was recorded based on the description reported by the breeders.For each plant identified by breeders, information were collected on organ used, methods of preparation, dosages and routes of administration.The plants used by the breeders as medicine were collected at each stage of the survey and identified on field using analytics flora of Benin from Akoègninou et al., (2006).Each of the plants described was also confirmed by an expert of the National Herbarium of the University of Abomey-Calavi.

Statistical analysis
Data collected were encoded and stored into database designed in Excel table.To determine main diseases, the citation frequency methodology was used.The number of citation of specific disease was determined according to the number of time this disease was reported by breeders during the survey.The formula used to calculate the frequency citation was: Where Fc is citation frequency; n is citation number of specific disease and N is total number of diseases citation.
To assess distribution of bacterial diseases, frequency citation was used and variance analysis was performed taking into account agro-ecological areas.The F test was performed to measure any significant difference between frequencies of citation of a specific bacterial disease according to agro-ecological areas.The mean values were calculated and compared by agro-ecological zone using the student t test.To calculate frequency of each medicinal plant or traditional recipes used by breeders for the diseases treatment according to agro-ecological area, Proc freq procedure of STATA was used.The chi-square (χ²) test was used to assess agro-ecological areas effect.The frequencies were compared to each other by using the bilateral Z test.For each relative frequency, confidence interval (CI) at 95% was calculated using the formula: F is the relative frequency and N the sample size.
The statistical analyses were performed using SAS (Statistical Analysis System, 2006) software.The histogram and diagram of the most plants and organ used was performed using the computer program Excel.

Distribution of bacterial diseases
Ten bacterial diseases were identified by the investigated breeders and presented in table 1. Distribution of diseases related .to livestock species and agro-ecological areas was also presented in table 1. Bovine pasteurellosis (69.05%), cutaneous streptothricosis (14.29%), blackleg (9.52 %) and bronchitis (7.14 %) were frequently recorded in extreme northern Benin.Investigation in cotton area of northern Benin showed that bovine pasteurellosis (64.52 %), avian salmonellosis (11.29 %) and cutaneous streptothricosis (9.68 %) were the livestock diseases frequently observed by the breeders.The Food producing area of Southern Borgou was characterized by the presence of bovine pasteurellosis (73.68 %) and cutaneous streptothricosis (21.05 %).Livestock diseases mainly reported in the West-Atacora area were avian salmonellosis (67.27 %) and infectious coryza (14.55 %).Cutaneous streptothricosis (15.56 %), enterotoxemia (15.56 %), bovine pasteurellosis (33.33 %) and avian salmonellosis (21.11 %) were the livestock diseases frequently observed by the breeders in cotton area of Central Benin.In agro-ecological areas as lands of bar area, low-pressure area and fisheries area, diseases frequently reported were avian salmonellosis, enterotoxemia and bronchitis.Taking into account distribution of diseases among agroecological areas, assessment of bacterial diseases showed that bronchitis disease related to poultry was more frequently observed in agro-ecological areas such as lands of bar area, in low-pressure area and in fisheries area.This disease was less observed in cotton area of northern Benin (1.6 %).Frequency citation observed for Blackleg was low.The highest value observed for Blackleg was registered in extreme northern Benin (9.52 %) and the lowest value was registered in West-Atacora area (1.82 %).
Fowl cholera and coryza infection were more frequently observed in West-Atacora area.Cutaneous streptothricosis related to cattle, sheep, and goats were mainly reported in Food producing area of Southern Borgou (21.05 %).Enterotoxemia related to Rabbit was more frequently reported by breeders in lands of bar area (22.00 %) and low-pressure area (23.53 %).The lowest frequency citation of enterotoxemia was registered in agroecological areas such as cotton area of northern Benin (1.61 %), food producing area of Southern Borgou (2.63 %) and West-Atacora area (3.64 %).Frequency citation of contagious bovine Peripneumonia (CBPP) was low.The highest value of CBPP (8.89 %) was registered in cotton area of Central Benin and the lowest value (4.84 %) was reported by the breeders in cotton area of northern Benin.Frequency citation registered for Bovine pasteurellosis was very high in Food producing area of Southern Borgou (73.68 %) and the lowest value was recorded in lands of bar area (2.00 %).Avian salmonellosis was frequently registered in poultry in West-Atacora area (67.27 %) whereas the lowest frequency was observed in cotton area of northern Benin (11.29 %).Bovine tuberculosis was only recorded in cotton area of northern Benin (3.23 %).

Treatment of bacterial diseases
Treatment of bacterial diseases occurring in livestock was carried out by using 46 species of plants belonging to 24 botanical families.Most of the plants used belong to the family of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Leguminosae-Mimosoideae with 13.04% of each, and Euphorbiaceae, Leguminosae-Papilionoideae, Poaceae and Rubiaceae represented at 6.52% each.The main plants used by breeders to treat livestock diseases were described on figure 2. Khaya senegalensis was the main plant reported by the breeders to treat livestock bacterial diseases.Others plants such as Vitellaria paradoxa ; Securinega virosa ; Bridelia ferruginea ; Albizia chevalieri etc... were also reported by the breeders.The organs mostly used by the breeders were leaves, bulb, root, bark, fruit, stem, grain, bark or the whole plant.The organs frequently used on the plants for the preparation of remedies are bark at 56.84%, the roots at 15.79% and the leaves at 14.74%.The other organs (bulbs, serve cob, stem, and whole plant) are used at 7.34%.Taking into account each plant used, bark of Khaya senegalensis were frequently reported by the breeders (figure 3).To treat bronchitis, leaves of O. gratissimum was most frequently used, followed by the leaves of Vernonia amygdalina.The gallenic form frequently used, was the liquid extract by trituration.Blackleg was treated using only the bark of Aganope stulhmanni.The whole plant of Euphorbia unispina was frequently reported by breeders to treat coryza infectious.Coryza infectious is also treated using leaves of Securinega virosa.The used forms of other plants were maceration and raw.To treat avian salmonellosis, most breeders used maceration of the whole Cissus quadrangularis.Sometimes, breeders used the leaves extract obtained after trituration of Ocimum gratissimum to treat avian salmonellosis.Liquid obtained from maceration of barks of Khaya senegalensis added with beef urine was used to treat CBPP.To stop cutaneous streptothricosis infection, the macerate of the corns of Zea mays was added to ampicillin.But sometimes, the pulp of Parkia biglobosa was also used.The leaves of Ocimum gratissimum was triturated and extract solution was used to stop enterotoxemia infection.Extract solution obtained from trituration of Bark of Khaya senegalensis was frequently used to treat Bovine pasteurellosis as well as extract obtained from the decoction of the bark of Mangifera indica.Some plants were reported to be used in the treatment of more than two diseases.Parkia biglobosa involved in the treatment of bovine pasteurellosis, bronchitis, avian coryza and cutaneous streptothricosis.Vitellaria paradoxa was also recorded in the treatment of bovine pasteurellosis, bronchitis and infectious coryza.The association of Prosopis africana, Mangifera indica and Detarium microcarpum was reported to stop bovine pasteurellosis and bronchitis.Khaya senegalensis and Tamarindus indica are used to treat contagious bovine peripneumonia and bovine pasteurellosis.Euphorbia unispina is also involved in the treatment of bovine pasteurellosis and infectious coryza.Ocimum gratissimum was recorded in the treatment of bronchitis, enterotoxemia and avian salmonellosis.Piliostigma thonningii is frequently used in the preparation of medicine used for treatment of cutaneous streptothricosis and bovine pasteurellosis.Vernonia amygdalina is used to treat both bronchitis and infectious coryza.Tables 2 to 5 present respectively the remedies used for the treatment of these bacterial diseases.For each of them, the local name and the scientific name of the plant used for treatment, plant organs used, the method of preparation, dosage, route of administration, time of treatment and the numbers of citations were presented.Euphorbiaceae is common family reported in this study.This may be due to the fact that survey is essentially focused on bacterial diseases but not on all animal ailments.It was also observed that the barks (56.84 %) is the most organ used, followed by Roots (15.78 %) and leaves (14.74 %).These results are similar to the observation made by Yinegar et al. (2007) andOffiah et al. (2011).
Medicinal plants are rich in variety of secondary metabolites of antimicrobial properties such as saponins, tannins, alkaloids, flavonoids and terpernoids (Lewis and Ausubel, 2006;Abdallah, 2011).The active components in the crude extract may be acting synergistically to produce antimicrobial effects (Elloff, 1998;Joshua and Takudzwa, 2013).According to Magaji and Yaro (2006) as well as Kawo et al. (2009), phytochemical components are responsible for both pharmacological and toxic activities in plants.Most of the medicinal plants which are cited in this study by the breeders contained saponins, tannins, alkaloids, tyrosin, flavonoids, phytosterol substances, triterpernoids, quadrangularins, parthenocissin, terpernoids and antibacterial activity as reported by some authors for Ocimum gratissimum, Securinega virosa, Khaya senegalensis, Afzelia Africana, Parkia biglobosa, Mangifera indica Cissus quadrangularis (Pahlaviani et al., 2013;Aiyelero et al.,2012;Ugoh et al., 2014 ;Kamur et al., 2010 ;Builders et al., 2012 ;Akinpelu et al., 2008 ;Elloff, 1998 ;Joshua and Takudzwa, 2013;Joseph and Raj, 2011;Murthy et al., 2003).Most of the plants identified to treat bacterial diseases are also inventoried by Ogni et al. (2014)  Previously, no ethno-pharmacological study was focused on assessment of the vegetation potential of our Savannah to treat only livestock bacterial diseases.Most of the Ethno-botanical studies that have been done in breeding, dealing with parasitic diseases or taking into account all type of livestock diseases.This differentiation may be due to the fact that parasitic diseases are macroscopically more noticeable.Thus, they call more the breeders' attention than of the infectious diseases that are not less important.

CONCLUSION
Data collected from the breeders showed that ethnoveterinary medicine is a common practice used in Benin to improve the performance of animal production.In addition to modern medicine, breeders use as well medicinal plants to treat their animals.Despite traditional pest control by plant knowledge, this study has helped to identify a certain number of useful plants that treat bacterial diseases.It would be interesting to expand this survey to the viral diseases, to better promote the medicinal plant potential of Benin found in forests and savannas, for breeders community to benefit from it.

Fig. 2 :
Fig. 2: Citation Frequency of the plants used of all diseases confuse.

Fig. 3 :
Fig. 3: Citation frequency of each plant organ used of all diseases confuse.
in a previous study to treat parasitic diseases.Adansonia digitata, Anogeissus leiocarpa, Mitragyna inermis, Prosopis africana, Mangifera indica, Tamarindus indica, Detarium microcarpum were frequently cited by breeders to treat internal parasitic diseases.This may be relating to the experience of breeders and their indigenous knowledge on pest plants control.According to Tchoumbougnang et al. (2009), pest control plants contain some phenolic groups that have a powerful effect on parasites.Similarly, Satrani et al. (2007) and Amarti et al. (2010) have shown through their work that phenols contain the highest antibacterial factor.

Table 1 :
Bacterial diseases distribution in the agro-ecological zones of Benin.

Table 2 :
Remedies used for treatment of the bronchitis and blackleg.

Table 3 :
Remedies used for the treatment of the infectious coryza and the avian salmonellosis.

Table 4 :
Masimba et al. (2011) treatment of the CBPP, the Cutaneous streptothricosis and the enterotoxemia.pasteurellosisamongall the plants species revealed to prevent or treat ailments of somba cattle breed in northern Benin.For treating bovine tuberculosis, no plants were identified during our survey.However, at Kedougou, in Senegal, Gning et al., (2014)reported that Vitellaria paradoxa is more used for the treatment of bovine tuberculosis.Therefore in this study, bronchitis is treated using a total of 11 plants.However Ocimum gratissimum and Vernonia amygdalyna is more reported by the breeders.In Zimbabwe's village poultry,Masimba et al. (2011)reported Aloe vera, Albizia gummisera, Allium cepa, Euphorbia matabelensis to be used in the control of respiratory problems including bronchitis.Euphorbia unispina and Securinega virosa are more mentioned by breeders to treat the infectious coryza.The cutaneous streptothricosis, BCPP and avian salmonellosis are treated by three species plants.Aloe trichosantha; flower of Caralluma sp; roots or leaves of Citrullus colocynthis; stem of Euphorbia sp. and root of Sericocomopsis pallida in Ethiopia.During our study, it's noticed that Blackleg is treated using Aganope stulhmannii.In contrast, Tamboura et al. (1998) reported that in Burkina Faso, Guiera senegalensis was used by breeders to treat blackleg.In this study, plants identified by breeders to treat bacterial diseases were frequently from family of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae, Poaceae and Rubiaceae.This observation is however different from that of Muthee et al. (2011) who reported that the highest families of plant which were more cited in Loitoktok district of Kenya were Fabaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Rutaceae.Moreover, in Plateau State of Nigeria, Offiah et al. (2011) revealed that Fabaceae, Combretaceae, Rubiaceae and Euphorbiaceae were the highest occurrences families.