Autonomous Farmers Use Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicines in Dairy Goats Using Pastures

Consumers expect ruminants to graze outdoors and flocks to be of a reasonable size. Dairy goats can be kept outdoors (natural) or indoors. The farms we studied in the Centre-West of France were either organic or conventional, and all used pastures and tended to meet consumer demand for naturalness. We obtained information through semi-directed interviews. Dairy goats are susceptible to gastrointestinal infections when using pastures and this was one of the main health problems mentioned by organic farmers. There are a very limited number of medicines available for lactating dairy goats and farmers can use complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM), where they are completely autonomous in their choice. Homeopathy, phytotherapy and aromatherapy were used for various health problems on almost all the farms surveyed. Dairy goats in France are frequently bred in large farms indoors but there are smaller farms where the goats are kept outdoors on pastures. Information was gained by means of semi-directive interviews of dairy goat farmers of Centre-West France. They were either conventional or organic farms. Due to the limited drugs available for dairy goats during lactation they turned largely to complementary and alternative veterinary medicines (CAVM). Homeopathy, phytotherapy and aromatherapy were used for various health problems in almost all the farms surveyed. Herd size and farm area were negatively associated with the complex use of CAVM, possibly due to the workload on larger farms. Some CAVM were more used in relation to the management of farms: aromatherapy in organic and homeopathy in cheese making farms. The farmers with higher level of education were more likely to employ phytotherapy. The farmers were autonomous in the choice of CAVM and did not rely on the advice of the veterinarians.