Appropriate animal health information systems for nomadic and transhumant livestock populations in Africa.

Nomadic and transhumant livestock comprise the normative mode of production in the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa. By adopting management practices with high human labor and informational input, pastoral societies have adapted to innately high environmental variability. The Western veterinary model, which developed under sedentary conditions of production, has been unable to address herd health problems in African pastoral regions. By soliciting the participation of pastoral people, however, it is possible to develop an animal health information system that is technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable. The organizational structure of appropriate information systems can furnish the framework for animal health delivery under pastoral conditions.