Managing Internal Parasites of Small Ruminants using Medicinal Plants a Review on Alternative Remedies, Efficacy Evaluation Techniques and Conservational Strategies

Abstract

Throughout the world, internal parasites are a majorhindrance to small ruminant production. The most common internal parasites ingrazing small ruminants are likely to be gastrointestinal nematodes. They causea reduction in live-weight gain, wool growth, poor reproductive performance,and increased production costs and thus hamper global food security.Pharmaceutical control continues to be the main measure used to manage orcontrol internal parasites, however as the resistance of internal parasite populationsspreads, the efficiency of this method in resource-limited environments becomeslimited and complex. Efforts to curb production losses caused by internalparasites have led communal farmers to use other treatments such as locallyavailable indigenous medicinal plants to control internal parasites as analternative to pharmaceuticals. However, many medicinal plants still need to beevaluated for their efficacy and efficiency using both in vitro as wellas in vivo methods. Furthermore, in many developing countries, the useof these plants is not well documented nor they are guided by certain rules andregulations to conserve them. Therefore, the objective of this review was todocument various remedies prepared from medicinal plants to manage internalparasites in small ruminants. A further objective was to evaluate techniquesused to determine the safety and efficacy of these plants and to suggestpossible strategies to conserve such useful plants and the knowledge associatedwith them.