ORIGINAL PAPER Compilation and adoption of ethno-veterinary medicine, traditional and other management practices by small ruminant farmers in Edo State Nigeria M. A. Bamikole & U. J. Ikhatua Accepted: 27 March 2009 / Published online: 3 May 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract An inventory study into the ethno-veterinary medicine and traditional management practices and the extent of their adoption in the management of small ruminants by farmers in Edo State, Nigeria was carried out. Three hundred and fifty (350) small ruminant farmers randomly chosen from the seven (7) randomly selected local government areas in the state were used for the study. Data pertaining to farmers’ background information, small ruminant acquisition and rearing as well as the ethno-veterinary medicines (EVMs) adopted were collected through a scheduled interview where structured questionnaires were administered. Data col- lected were used in the computation of ethno-veterinary medicine use indices (EVMUIs) and were subjected to simple statistical analysis. Results showed that 60.5% of the farmers interviewed were male while 39.4% were females and 56.9% of them were above 40 years old. About 60% of the farmers had between primary and secondary education, while 33.1% have no formal education and about 86% had little or no exposure to mass media. Thirty-seven (37) different EVMs/Tradi- tional practices were identified. Based on their EVMUIs, 11 or 29.73% were highly used, 9 or 24.32% were moderately used while 17 or 45.95% were poorly used by farmers. Materials identified were noted to be locally available and were fully discussed. It is concluded that EVMs practices are actually adapted to the culture and socio-economic realities of resource poor farmers and means of spreading the knowledge among small scale farmers should be encouraged. Keywords Adoption . Compilation . Ethno-veterinary . Small ruminants Introduction Nigeria is the leading producer of goats in Africa and the highest producer of sheep in West Africa. Goat and sheep population of 24.5 and 14 million respectively have been reported (ILRI 2000). The major producer of sheep and goats in Nigeria are traditional farmers who found in these animals a readily source of income to meet daily needs as well as security for continued food supply in periods of crop failure. The comparatively small carcasses of these animals have conferred on them an advantage of a biological refrigerator for meat supply in rural Africa. The health aspects of small ruminant production is a very important one and indications abound that many sheep and goat producers do not have access to orthodox veterinary drugs and assistance due, to their poor economic status as well as poor availability of the service especially to rural communities. Managing the health of these animals has been mostly through the indigenous knowledge developed by the people Trop Anim Health Prod (2009) 41:1549–1561 DOI 10.1007/s11250-009-9346-3 M. A. Bamikole (*) : U. J. Ikhatua Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria e-mail: bankymao@yahoo.co.uk e-mail: bankymao@uniben.edu