Studies of some health aspects of traditional camel management in Northwestern Nigeria

U M Chafe, A Musa* and B Dogara*

Department of Veterinary Medicine, Surgery and Theriogenology
*Faculty of Agriculture, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria
drchafe218@yahoo.com

Abstract

Structured questionnaires and recorded interviews were used in a survey of 223 camel herds in Sokoto and Kebbi States of North Western Nigeria.  The survey was aimed at assessing the health status of the one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) in the area. 

>From this survey, the commonest disease group was found to be skin diseases (including dermatophilosis, cutaneous ulcers and ectoparasites infestations). Camels in this area were also found to be afflicted with gastrointestinal disorders, respiratory disease and parasitic diseases.  78.9% of the camel owners interviewed use traditional remedies in treating their camels against diseases.  The main reason for this, as given by 69.9% of respondents, is the absence of veterinary services in their immediate environment; other reasons include inability to afford veterinary drugs (12.5%) and the belief that modern veterinary drugs are ineffective (10.2%).  The average herd size was found to be 3-34 camels at any given time, and the average mortality rate was found to be low (6.4% overall, or 0.67 camels/herd/year). 

It is concluded that enlightenment campaigns and improved veterinary health care services are needed to increase the number and productivity of camels in Nigeria.

Keywords: Camel diseases, ethnoveterinary practices, questionnaire survey, veterinary care services

Introduction

The former Sokoto State (now Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States) is one of the largest livestock producing areas in Nigeria.  Among the livestock produced in the area are cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, camels, poultry, and, to some extent, pigs and rabbits.  The camel, although far outnumbered by other species is highly adapted to the semi-arid environment of the area and, broadly speaking, plays a much more important role in the economy of Northern Nigeria than is generally recognized (FDLPCS 1992).  This is due to the numerous advantages it has over other livestock species in terms of work capacity, milk and meat production, and environmental conservation (Wilson 1984, Hjort 1988).

Camels in this part of the country Sokoto and Kebbi States) are largely owned by individuals and for the most part consist of herds averaging 2-5 camels per herd. Larger herds of 50-200 camels are however not uncommon particularly during the dry season when camel owners from neighboring countries enter the country in the course of their seasonal migration for better pastures.

The camels examined in this study were mainly those owned by the local people (to a large extent made up of agrarian peasantry) and which are involved in farm work, transportation, domestic household work, or kept as source of milk and meat.  Available figures (Anonymous 1981) indicate that camels make up 0.06% of the total livestock population in the study area with the highest concentration being in Silame and Argungu Local Government Areas (Table 1).

FDLPCS (1992) estimated a Nigerian national annual mean population of 87,000 camels, being found most frequently in the former Sokoto (43,960) and Borno (26,866) states.  The same report also found that 83.93% of all camels are found in the villages, depending on season. The camel is morphologically, behaviorally and physiologically adapted to heat, water shortage and poor quality fodder (Yagil 1984). There is therefore, a great scope for increasing its productivity by improved husbandry methods and selective breeding. In addition to these, however, the health status of these animals has to be improved tremendously if we are to exploit their potentials to the maximum (Wilson 1984 1998, Rathore 1986).  It is with this in mind that this preliminary study on the health status of the camel, in Sokoto and Kebbi States was embarked upon.

Materials and methods 

The study area was divided into five zones: Argungu, Illela, Isa/Sabon-Birni, Koko/Besse and Tangaza.  Fifty (50) questionnaires were administered to fifty randomly selected camel keepers/owners in each of the zones.  The questionnaires were administered by selected and trained enumerators who were based in the various Local Government Areas, and who in most cases were also well known to the camel keepers. The questionnaire information was supplemented with recorded interviews, with the enumerators serving as guides/interpreters.  These interviews served the dual purpose of cross-checking the responses to the questionnaires as well as a forum for free discussions on areas that were salient. In compiling the results, questionnaires with inconsistent information were rejected. Thus 45, 35, 49, 45 and 49 questionnaires were recorded for Argungu, Illela, Isa, Tangaza and Koko/Besse zones respectively. The herds of camels were also inspected and, in some cases clinically examined.

Questions asked in the structured questionnaires include;

1) common diseases noticed in the area;

2) types of treatment administered (local or modern);

3) reasons for embarking on local treatment (if the owner does not patronize modern veterinary services); and

4) the number of deaths recorded in the owners’ herd (over the previous 12 months), among other questions.

The analysis (z-test for proportions, the Student’s t-test and the chi-squared test (Armitage and Berry 1990)) and presentation of the data was done with Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007 (12.0.6024.5000).

Results  

The response of the camel owners to questions on camel diseases has to be interpreted with a certain degree of caution.  This is because the names of most of the disease symptoms observed by owners are given in vernacular terms and a given disease entity may have as many as 3 names, depending on the locality. This absence of clear and concise vernacular terms may cause a lot of confusion.

Among the 223 respondents in this study, skin disease has the highest mention (69.1%) as a problem of camels, followed by blood disorders (57.8%) (Since a farmer may mention more than one disease, the total may exceed 100%). Of the total of 154 farmers that reported skin disease (Table 2; Figure 1), Isa zone has the highest number of 45 farmers (29.2%). Similarly, of the 129 farmers that reported blood disorders, the highest number was 44 (34.1%) from Koko/Besse zone. None of the farmers interviewed from Illela zone reported gastrointestinal disease as a problem in their camel herds.

 From this study, the most important specific skin disease was dermatophilosis (Figure 2).

This disease (also known as streptothricosis, or kirchi, in Hausa language) was reported by 17.9% of the respondents. Other specific skin diseases reported by camel owners include cutaneous ulcers (5.4%), ectoparasites (5.4%), camel pox (5.4%), lumpy skin disease (4.5%) and scabies (2.2%) among others. Nonspecific skin diseases were reported by 23.8% of the respondents.

Of the specific blood diseases, only babesiosis (1.8%) and trypanosomiasis (0.9%) were mentioned (Figure 3).

Worm infestation mentioned by 9.0% of all the respondents is the most important of the gastrointestinal disorders (Figure 4). Other disorders mentioned include colic (4.04%), diarrhoea (1.4%) and bloat (0.45%).

The most important respiratory disorders mentioned by respondents in this study are cough (11.66%) and catarrh (4.04%). Pneumonia and tuberculosis have also been mentioned (Figure 5).

Some general ailments and/or symptoms (Figure 6) that could not be classified under any of the four categories mentioned above were classified under “Others”. These include, plant poisoning (0.45%), emaciation (0.45%) and ventral oedema (0.45%).

The overall picture of camel diseases from the study area (Figure 1) indicates that skin disease is the most important in each of the zones (except Koko/Besse) and in the study area as a whole. It is followed by blood disorders and gastrointestinal disorders.

The proportion of farmers reporting each of the categories of diseases is significantly higher (P<0.05) in Argungu than in Koko/Besse (Table 3); it is also higher in Illela than in Tangaza, except for respiratory disorders.

Within each zone, except Koko/Besse, the proportion of farmers reporting skin diseases is significantly higher (P<0.05) for skin diseases than for gastrointestinal diseases and “others” (Table 4): It is also higher for blood disorders than for respiratory disorders, across all zones.

In treating their animals against diseases 176 respondents (78.9%) use traditional remedies and only 47 (21.1%) patronize modern veterinary clinics (Table 5).

Of the farmers that employ traditional remedies, their reason for not patronizing modern veterinary clinics include, lack of veterinary services (69.9%), ineffective veterinary services (10.2%) and inability to afford veterinary services (12.5%) among others.

The proportion of farmers patronizing modern veterinary services is significantly higher (P<0.05) in Tangaza zone than in each of the other 4 zones (Table 6).

Conversely, compared to Tangaza zone, all the other zones have significantly higher (P<0.05) proportions of farmers citing absence of a veterinary clinic as a reason for employing traditional remedies.

The mortality rates (Table 7) observed among camel herds are found to be significantly higher in all the other zones (except Isa) as compared to Tangaza (Table 6).

The mean number of camels per herd (Table 7) is higher (P<0.05) in Illela compared to each of the other four zones. That number is also least in Koko/Besse compared to the other zones (Table 8).

A statistically significant evidence of association was found between the diseases reported and the locality (X²=71.84; p<0.05; Table 2).

Discussion 

From the results of this work, skin diseases seem to be the most common disease group of camels in the study area. Of these diseases, dermatophilosis has the highest frequency of mention. Dermatophilosis is a specific disease of animals and man caused by the higher bacteria Dermatophilus congolensis, in which the lesions are almost always restricted to the skin in the form of raised cup-like tufts of hair which, when removed, leave a raw ulcerated surface (Bida and Dennis 1976). Some of the ulcers reported by farmers may indeed be manifestations of this disease, whose causative organism has also been associated with contagious skin necrosis in camels (Leese 1927, Peck 1939, Edelsten and Pegram 1974).

Only 2.24% of respondents in this study reported scabies as a problem even though mange is widely regarded to be the most feared and widespread disease affecting the Arabian camel after trypanosomiasis (Lodha 1966, Ibrahim et al 1981, Chauhan et al 1986, Nayel and Abu-Samra 1986, Radostits et al 1997).

In addition to the flies that transmit trypanosomiasis (Hoare 1970, Schillinger and Rottcher 1986, Dirie et al 1989) some flies are a nuisance to camels and can cause considerable distress (Soulsby 1982). In this study, no camel has been found to be infected with nasal bot (larvae of the camel bot fly, Cephalopina titillator Clark) although the condition has been reported to be very common in semi-arid areas of Somali State, Ethiopia, with an overall prevalence rate of 71.7%, (Bekele 2001), Saudi Arabia (Hussein et al 1982), Iraq (Abul-Hab and Al-Affass 1977) and in Tunisia (Higgins 1983) where the larvae were found to be highly pathogenic.

Although 1.8% of the respondents in this study have indicated babesiosis to be a problem with their camels, this finding may not be significant as they are all from one zone (Isa) and there is no good evidence that babesiosis occurs in the camel (Rutter 1967). Therefore the significance of ticks in camels in this area seems to be limited to the rainy season, when they render the animals more susceptible to dermatophilosis by causing skin damage.

5.38% of the respondents reported camelpox as their problem. This disease is of considerable economic significance in all camel-raising areas of the world (Chandra et al 1998) with up to 30% mortality, particularly in young camels (Jezek et al 1983). Most of the camels examined with pox lesions in this study were young animals less than 3 years old, and in one camel, from Isa zone, there were complications from secondary bacterial infections.

Only 0.9% of respondents mentioned trypanosomiasis (surra) as a problem with their camels. This, probably, may be a problem of nomenclature since 55.16% of the respondents, spread across all zones, have indicated “too much blood” as a problem. Many herders, as gathered from the oral interviews, confuse the clinical manifestations of trypanosomiasis with “too much blood” (bugun jinni in Hausa) which has different meanings depending on the locality. Some of the camels from this study with “to much blood” examined by the microhaematocrit centrifugation technique (Woo1971) had Trypanosoma evansi in their blood; while others similarly examined had intermittent fever , anaemia, emaciation and reduced productivity which are consistent with the clinical manifestations of trypanosomiasis (Diall et al 1987, Karram et al 1991, Sakr et al 1991, Sayed 1998).

Despite the confusion in nomenclature, however, there is a general agreement among herders on the signs (sluggishness and sometimes recumbency) and the traditional treatment (a small incision made on the jugular furrow to let off the “bad blood”) of bugun jini:  These signs are consistent with those of trypanosomiasis, even if the treatment is unorthodox. In any case, all the herders interviewed are unanimous in admitting that this conservative treatment does not prevent a relapse of the disease at a later date (usually after some months). Another vernacular name for bugun jini is hawan jini, which literally means “high blood pressure”. This is highly improbable as animals are not known to be prone to hypertension (Swenson 1977): Such camels may be infected with blood parasites, possibly trypanosomes (Schillinger and Rottcher 1986), anaplasma (Ajayi et al 1984), or may even be healthy female camels at a certain stage of pregnancy (Eltohamy et al 1986).

Parasitic worms (Wardeh 1989), plant poisoning (Nwude and Parsons 1977), functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract as well as certain enterotoxin bacteria might have been responsible for the observed cases of diarrhoea seen in some camels, as evidence that certain pathogenic bacteria cause disease in Nigerian camels is well documented (Okoh 1979, Adesiyun 1985, Kwaga 1985, Adesiyun et al 1986, Kwaga et al 1987).

The general signs of respiratory disease (cough, pneumonia and catarrh) observed in some camels in this study might have been caused by infections with certain viruses (Olaleye et al 1989).

Conclusion 

• This study has shown that camel herders that patronize modern veterinary clinics have significantly lower mortality rates in their camels than those who use traditional remedies; and that a significantly higher proportion of farmers employ traditional remedies only because they have no access to modern veterinary services.

  
  

• It is therefore recommended that veterinary health care delivery services should be improved together with adequate public enlightenment campaigns. There is the need, therefore, for further research on the ethno veterinary practices of camel rearers, and where such practices are found to be efficacious they should be standardized and improved upon.

  
  

• The baseline physiological parameters of the Nigerian camel should also be established as a basis for further research on its health status. This is important if we are to exploit the full potentials of the camel as a draft and food animal.

Acknowledgements 

This research was funded by the EEC-linkage program of the Faculty of Agriculture, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.  The assistance of the program coordinator, Dr. D. Bashir, and the Camel Studies Group team leader, Mal. A. Musa, is hereby gratefully acknowledged.  We also wish to thank Drs. G. A. Gusau and S. B. Dorh (Directors of Veterinary Services, Sokoto and Kebbi States respectively) for their assistance in providing annual clinical reports; and for facilitating smooth introduction to the camel herders.

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Received 15 October 2007; Accepted 14 November 2007; Published 1 February 2008

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