Preserving traditional knowledge to reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock: A case study of the Fulani in Nigeria

As climate change in northern Nigeria causes drought and aridity, drying up traditional grazing lands, traditional pastoral Fulani cattle herders are being pushed further south, where many take jobs on farms owned by businessmen farmers experimenting with intensive, enclosed systems. This threatens to erode traditional systems of cattle management, including well-developed ethnobotany practices that could offer alternatives to the high antibiotic use (ABU) commonly seen in overcrowded, intensive systems with poor hygiene and poor animal welfare, which in turn drives antibiotic resistance.