Availability and Rational Use of Veterinary Drugs Among Sheep (Ovis Aries) Producers in Lesotho

The rationality in the use of veterinary drugs among sheep farmers has been a concern, particularly in remote areas of Lesotho. In this light, a descriptive survey was conducted where a cross-sectional design was employed to collect the data on the availability and rational use of veterinary drugs from a total of 102 sheep farmers. SPSS (Version 20.00) was used for data analysis, where the crosstabs within descriptive statistics were used to determine percentages while the significance was tested using both the Chi-square test and Fisher‘s exact test. Sheep farming in the study area is mostly dominated by adult men who are mostly married and have attained primary school leaving certificates, as reflected by 51.9% and 48.7% in rural and peri-urban villages, respectively. The use of commercial drugs for the control of diseases surpasses the use of medicinal plants, as demonstrated by 95.8% and 86.8% of responses in the rural and peri-urban villages, respectively. Moreover, the greater proportion of sheep farmers (83.3% and 89.1% in the rural and peri-urban, respectively) have not been trained on the use of veterinary drugs; however, it was observed that most of them diagnose and treat their animals on their own. The availability of veterinary services among sheep farming communities is very poor and mostly, farmers rely on farm feeds and hawkers as sources of drugs. The common method for dosage measurement is by guessing the animal's body weight. Most farmers are not aware of the withdrawal period following animal treatment as reflected by 78.2% and 63.8% of farmers in rural and peri-urban villages, respectively. Veterinary drugs are mostly stored at room temperature. In conclusion, the availability of veterinary drugs among farming communities is very poor and drugs are mostly irrationally used.