Ethno-veterinary Practices for Animal Health and the Associated Medicinal Plants from 24 Locations in 10 States of India

Abstract

Introduction: The objectives of this study were to collect the ethnoveterinary practices for prevention and cure of animal health conditions and associated flora from healers and knowledgeable dairy farmers and to rapidly assess these practices for their safety and efficacy. Methods: Participatory rural appraisal and matrix ranking are used for prioritization of the animal health conditions. The documented formulations were rapidly assessed for their safety and efficacy using rapid assessment methodology. Results: Local people used 248 species of plants belonging to 80 families for prevention and cure of animal health conditions. Out of 441 formulations using various plants, 353 are safe and efficacious.The majority of these medicinal plants belong to Leguminosae (27 species with 20 genera), Apiaceae (nine species), Cucurbitaceae (8 species), Euphorbiaceae (11 species) and Poaceae (14 species). Leaves are commonly used (34.42 %) followed by roots, (11%), fruits (9.74%),seeds (8.76%), barks (8.76%, whole plant (3.57%) stem (3.25%) and rhizome (2.6%). Average expenditure incurred for animal health care by a household was Indian Rupees 726.00 with western veterinary treatment and Indian Rupees 42.4 with ethno-veterinary practices, saving Indian Rupees 684 per episode. Conclusion: There is large amount of cost effective traditional knowledge and resources for animal health available in the community.Ethno-veterinary practices are effective alternative to antibiotics and other chemicals drugs in livestock management.

Keywords

Ethno-veterinary, Natural/herbal remedies, Livestock health, medicinal plants, antibiotic residue, antibiotic resistance

Introduction

High cost and indiscriminate use of antibiotics and other veterinary drugs and their residues in the milk and other animal products are serious problems of present veterinary services in India. The presence of drug residues results in development of drug resistant microorganisms that are difficult to treat [1,2] and the world is looking for safer herbal alternatives. The objectives of this study were to collect the ethno-veterinary practices for prevention and cure of animal health conditions and associated flora from healers (healers are local community based traditional health practitioners who have acquired their ecosystem and ethnic community specific traditional health knowledge through intergenerational learning. They practice healing within the respective communities based on the social legitimacy and status within their societies) and knowledgeable dairy farmers and to rapidly assess these practices for their safety and efficacy. The present paper reports the documentation and rapid assessment of the ethno-veterinary practices from 24 locations in 10 states of India.

Materials and Methods

The Details of the Project Area

The study area involved 27 blocks, 51 Grama Panchayat having 71 villages/wards with 12,114 households and 70,449 people (Figure 1). Table 1a and Table 1b show the names of the states, districts, blocks, villages and the household covered. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and matrix ranking is used for prioritization of the animal health conditions. Documentation and rapid assessment to find the safety and efficacy of documented formulations were conducted using the methodology suggested earlier [3,4].

Table 1a: Details of the area, number of household selected and the population of the area covered during the study.

Table 1b: Organizations that helped in the study.

Figure 1: Location map of 10 states where the study is undertaken.

Results

Four hundred and forty one Ethno-veterinary practices were documented for 52 prioritized conditions out of which 353 practices were assessed as safe and efficacious. Two hundred and forty eight plant species belonging to 80 families were used in 441 formulations. Table 2 shows the botanical names of the documented plant species arranged in alphabetic order with parts used for the animal health practices. Majority of these medicinal plants belong to Leguminosae (27 species with 20 genera), Apiaceae (9 species), Cucurbitaceae (8 species), Euphorbiaceae (11 species) and Poaceae (14 species). The parts used are leaves (34.42 %) roots, (11%), fruits (9.74%), seeds (8.76%), barks (8.76%, whole plant (3.57%), stem (3.25%) and rhizome (2.6%) (Figure 2).

Table 2: Shows the botanical name, family which it belongs, parts used and the disease conditions for which it is used.

Figure 2: Shows the percent of plant parts used.

Discussion

The veterinary diseases such as mastitis, foot and mouth disease (FMD), bloat, diarrhoea, ephemeral fever, indigestion and parasitic infection substantially affect the farmer’s income. Ethno-veterinary practices have great potential to address these as EVP has decentralized local resource-based applications that are safe, efficacious and cost effective. It also can lead to reduction of use of antibiotics and other chemical drugs and associated residues in the animal products and microbial resistance.

The local communities have the traditional medicinal knowledge and they have their own unique way of identifying medicinal plants, developing formulations and using them to treat a particular disease. They were developed in a culture and perception that is different from that of Western science. In the indigenous knowledge systems the evaluation is ‘systemic’, whereas in Western system it is ‘atomic’ or cellular [1,2]. Presently there are no correlations or poorly established correlations between these medical systems. The logic of folk knowledge lacks the theoretical rigor of Ayurveda or western medicine but there is an inherent relationship between classical textual knowledge and folk knowledge and therefore they (Ayurveda/Mrugayurveda) are used as a tool for assessment of safety and efficacy of the documented ethno-veterinary practices [1,2].

The urgent need of documentation and revival of these traditional veterinary practices is highlighted in the light of the benefits they provide.

Conclusion

There is large amount of cost effective traditional knowledge and resources for animal health available in the community and communities use these practices regularly. EVP can be an effective alternative to antibiotics and other synthetic chemicals in livestock management.

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Department of science and Technology, Government of India for financial support during this work. We wish to thank the local healers and farmers who have shared their valuable knowledge. We also acknowledge all 24 organizations for their cooperation and contribution and all our colleagues for the support during this work.

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

References

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