Livestock has been the source of food and income for Somali community for the entire their life. Literally the word Somali is related to livestock which shows the degree to which Somali community attached to animals. Therefore, it is not a surprise that Somalis have extensive indigenous knowledge on management and control of diseases.
This study will focus on traditional knowledge of Hulumbe’’ tick born disease of sheep’’.
66 respondents were interviewed among which 56 % of them were males and 44% were females. All respondents were above 30 years old, because old people have experience and knowledge about the traditional disease diagnosis and treatment.
Traditional diagnosis: Bloody diarrhea, change of the hair color, isolation of the herd and presence of tick in the area are the common signs Somali community use to diagnose the animals.
There are several traditional disease treatment and management strategies that are practiced. The respondents believe that the treatments are not 100% effective and therefore they use a combination of methods. Below are some of the traditional treatments used in Somaliland.
Traditionally Somalis control and prevent this disease by collecting and burning the ticks. In early morning children are sent to animal pen, and they collect ticks from the animals, after collection ticks are immersed in to animal urine. Some farmers prefer to burn it instead of immersing to animal urine.
If the area has a lot of ticks they move their animals far away from the tick infested environment.
In conclusion, Traditional knowledge of Nairobi sheep disease in Somaliland is in agreement with scientific knowledge particularly in diagnosis and control the vector. However, this is a viral disease and therefore the treatment used may not be sufficient to help animal recover.
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