Ethnoveterinary Remedies Used in Avian Complementary Medicine in Selected Communal Areas in Zimbabwe.

Plant remedies used in avian ethnomedicine are potential candidates for the development of phytogenic feed additives. An ethnoveterinary survey was carried out in 3 districts in Zimbabwe to document plants used in poultry ethnomedicine and identify plants that have the potential to be used for the development of poultry phytogenic feed additives. The survey employed questionnaire-guided oral interviews with 146 smallholder farmers.

Wound Healing Properties of Selected Plants Used in Ethnoveterinary Medicine.

Plants have arrays of phytoconstituents that have wide ranging biological effects like antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties key in wound management. wound healing properties of ointments made of crude methanolic extracts (10% extract w/w in white soft paraffin) of three plant species, L. (whole aerial plant parts), Klotzsch (whole aerial plant parts) and Lam.

Performance of goats fed on low quality veld hay supplemented with fresh spiny cactus (Opuntia megacantha) mixed with browse legumes hay in Zimbabwe.

Nutrition is a major constraint in smallholder livestock production; hence, the use of alternative sources which are adaptive to long dry seasons is imperative. The study was conducted to establish options of improving nutrition and palatability and also to determine the performance of goats fed on cactus-browse hay as dry season supplements. Palatability and adequacy of nutrition was investigated using 32 castrated male goat kids.

Production and economic performance of F1-crossbred dairy cattle fed non-conventional protein supplements in Zimbabwe.

The effects of supplementing crossbred cows with non-conventional protein sources on dry matter intake, milk yield parameters and economic returns were investigated. Twenty-five lactating F1 Holstein-Mashona crossbreds averaging 115 ± 24 days in milk were used. Five treatments, total mixed ration (TMR), urea-treated maize stover, untreated maize stover, Macroptilium atropurpureum (Siratro) hay and veld hay, were randomly assigned to cows and replicated five times in a completely randomised design.

Prevalence of mastitis in dairy cows from smallholder farms in Zimbabwe.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of sub-clinical and clinical mastitis and the associated factors in cows from selected smallholder dairy farms in Zimbabwe. Physical examinations were conducted on all lactating cows for evidence of signs of clinical mastitis. Composite milk samples were collected from all lactating cows for bacterial culture and somatic cell counting.