• Indigenous knowledge

Indigenous knowledge

This article discusses a cattle disease called liei or noi, a disease predominantly found in Southern Sudan.

The article finds that:

• these diseases present a special challenge to a community-based programme that covers a large area characterised by very poor infrastructure, minimal laboratory facilities and operational constraints such as severe conflict
• few workers in southern Sudan have considered livestock diseases according to the clinical syndromes that are observed in the field and the notion that chronically sick cattle may be infected with more than one disease agent
• researchers have not always related recommendations about disease control to the ability of veterinary agencies to deliver relevant services to livestock keepers, and the capacity of livestock keepers to pay for these services
• livestock keepers in southern Sudan characterise chronic wasting disease in cattle using criteria that are very similar to those used by veterinarians
• the local disease names liei and noi encompass various diseases that are recognised by veterinarians. These 'western' diseases occur as single entities and as mixed infections involving up to four groups
• there is little evidence to indicate that either livestock owners or veterinary workers could distinguish between different infections and combinations of infections on clinical grounds alone

The article recommended that the following work be done in the future:

• testing different combinations of drugs for the treatment of liei and noi
• encouraging the wider use of basic veterinary investigation methods
• investigation into the limitations of training courses based on specific western diseases rather than the clinical syndromes that are observed in the field

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