Heath Management and Medical Practices of Blackbelly Farms in The Different Countries in Central Africa

Black belly sheep health This while, improving the breeding practices and genetic resources used is only possible if we master the practices of the farmers in their environment including good medical practices. According to Adjibode et al. [9], differences upstream farming system could lead on great variability in the reproductive and growth performances in sheep. The lack of credible information on these farming practices make it impossible to assess the difficulties linked to technical ABSTRACT The medical practices and health management in Blackbelly farms in Central Africa were analyzed between 1 st April to 31 st November 2019 in 299 farms in Cameroon, Congo and Gabon. It appears that bacterial diseases are the most encountered in Blackbelly farms. in Central Africa, monitoring of viral and fungal diseases. It is also observed that ticks (14.7%) constitute the main type of ectoparasite of Blackbelly Central Africa and co-infect farms with insects and mites (34.1%). Helminths (43.1%) are the most common endoparasites. However, the majority of breeders (76.6%) never have their animals vaccinated and very few breeders regularly vaccinate their animals (4.7%) in general in Central Africa. But in Congo 45% of breeders sometimes vaccinate their animals (14.3% of this category). The majority of breeders never administer preventive treatment neither against ectoparasites (75.3%) nor against endoparasites (75.3%). 3%), which once again demonstrates the disease resistance capacity of these animals. However, the majority of the Congo’s pastoralists sometimes resort to preventive treatments against ectoparasites (65%) and some of them resort to treatment against endoparasites (35%). Blackbelly breeders sometimes use traditional treatments and are mainly from Cameroon. However, all breeders record losses of animals due to disease, theft and accidents.


Introduction
Black belly sheep have been one of the widely distributed in the world because of its higher adaptability capacities in various climatic condition [1]. Indeed sheep, after cattle, represent the most important group of ruminants in the farming system, both temperate and tropical [2]. sheep also presents notable advantages linked to animal health. Indeed, in the regions of Central Africa, there is a trypano tolerant sheep breed and very resistant to various diseases. Among these there is the Black belly sheep which is found only in forest areas with an ideal adaptation to the local conditions of these areas [3]. It is a sheep breed which has been present in these areas for several decades, but which is now found in several countries of the world following the migration movements of the slave trade and colonization [1]. The farming practices of Black belly in the forest zone have enabled this resource to be conserved for generations, but current environmental changes are necessarily causing changes in the farming practices of the populations. Indeed, one of the most important cause of animal lost in African farming systems is diseases, due to poor medical practices [4]. If in some areas of America and Europe the breeding practices of Black belly have been the subject of several studies for years [5][6][7][8]. In Central Africa, very few authors have addressed the analysis of farming practices for Black belly sheep and particularly health practices [1,3].
This while, improving the breeding practices and genetic resources used is only possible if we master the practices of the farmers in their environment including good medical practices. According to Adjibode et al. [9], differences upstream farming system could lead on great variability in the reproductive and growth performances in sheep. The lack of credible information on these farming practices make it impossible to assess the difficulties linked to technical

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
The medical practices and health management in Blackbelly farms in Central Africa were analyzed between 1 st April to 31 st November 2019 in 299 farms in Cameroon, Congo and Gabon. It appears that bacterial diseases are the most encountered in Blackbelly farms. in Central Africa, monitoring of viral and fungal diseases. It is also observed that ticks (14.7%) constitute the main type of ectoparasite of Blackbelly Central Africa and co-infect farms with insects and mites (34.1%). Helminths (43.1%) are the most common endoparasites. However, the majority of breeders (76.6%) never have their animals vaccinated and very few breeders regularly vaccinate their animals (4.7%) in general in Central Africa. But in Congo 45% of breeders sometimes vaccinate their animals (14.3% of this category). The majority of breeders never administer preventive treatment neither against ectoparasites (75.3%) nor against endoparasites (75.3%). 3%), which once again demonstrates the disease resistance capacity of these animals. However, the majority of the Congo's pastoralists sometimes resort to preventive treatments against ectoparasites (65%) and some of them resort to treatment against endoparasites (35%). Blackbelly breeders sometimes use traditional treatments and are mainly from Cameroon. However, all breeders record losses of animals due to disease, theft and accidents. improvements in farming. If the sociocultural and traditional practices have very often been the engines of conservation of endogenous genetic resources, the challenges of food security and financial stability oblige the improvement medical practices as they play an important role in farms profitability. The objective of this study is therefore to characterize the medicals practices of Black belly sheep farms in the Central African sub-region.

Description of the Study Area
The Location of Our Study Mainly Involves Three Central African Countries, Namely: Cameroon, Gabon and the Congo.

Data Collection
This study was carried during the period between April to November 2019. A total of 299 Black belly farmers (267 in Cameroon, 20 in Congo and 12 in Gabon) were selected in Hazard by snowball method. Survey framework was used as well as observations for data collection. The management method information that Were collected includes: herd structure, management of livestock, health management, the problems encountered.

Statistical Analyzes
The descriptive statistics made it possible to determine the frequencies, means, and percentages of breeding method of the Black belly in Central Africa. The test of Contingency made it possible to test association or independence between the factors.
These analyzes were carried out using SPSS 21.0 software.

Influence of the Categories of Diseases, Ectoparasites and Endoparasites Encountered in Blackbelly Farms According to the Countries in Central Africa
In general, bacterial diseases are the most encountered in Blackbelly farms in Central Africa. However, there are also other diseases such as viral and fungal diseases ( Table 1). It is observed that ticks (14.7%) constitute the main type of ectoparasite of Blackbelly Central Africa. However, insects and ticks and mites generally affect Central African farms (34.1%). The most common endoparasites are helminths (43.1%), however the majority of breeders in Central Africa report the recurrent presence of both types, protozoa and helminths in farms. We note that the majority of breeders (76.6%) never have their animals vaccinated. Nevertheless, in Congo 45% of breeders sometimes vaccinate their animals (14.3% in this category). Very few breeders regularly vaccinate their animals (4.7%). The majority of breeders never administer preventive treatment either against ectoparasites (75.3%) or against endoparasites (75.3%), which once again demonstrates the ability of these animals to resist diseases. However, the majority of Congo farmers sometimes resort to preventive treatments against ectoparasites (65%) and some of them resort to treatment against endoparasites (35%).   Note: n (%) : actual (frequency), ns : not significant, * : significant

Traditional Treatment of Animals
Some breeders regularly use traditional treatment (2.0 %) and there are all of them from Cameroon (Table 2).

Loss of Animals and Intervention by Specialist in the Field
The majority of Black Belly farmers ( Table 3) record cases of animal's loss (94.6%). These losses are mainly due to the diseases and theft (29.4%). However, in Congo and Gabon in addition to theft and disease (Table 4), breeders identify accidents as another major cause of animal loss. For most of the breeders, disease and mortality are non-seasonal in the forest area of Africa (Table 5), they are present in the dry and rainy season. However, all of the Congo breeders and half of the Gabon farmers declare that disease and mortality are more frequent in the rainy season.     Yaye [10] in Niger to be identified as the main diseases were, anthrax, sheep pox, foot-and-mouth disease and parasitic diseases. Our results corroborate with the observations of [9] in Senegal, indeed all of the pastoralists in north and south Senegal report a high prevalence of diseases causing diarrhea, cough, weight loss and mortality. Similarly, it also notes a low vaccine use equal to that reported in this study (24%). In contrast, in western Cameroon, Tchouamo et al (2005) [11] noted that the majority of pastoralists administer disease care (70%).
This variation in health status in different countries and production systems may be due to varying feeding, watering and hygiene conditions. It should however be noted that, the breeders do not administer any treatment either because they do not know the treatments to apply, or finally because they do not have enough