There are considerably fewer studies on traditional ethnoveterinary in America, and are basically reduced to the treatment of pets in Canada the use of natural remedies for domestic animals and breeding in Trinidad and Tobago and the traditional knowledge on bovine health in Colombia.
Orientated towards the documentation of this fast receding traditional knowledge, the description of new resources and sanitary practices and the search for new veterinary drugs, the reviews and databases on veterinary ethnomedicine show that there is an increasing number of scientific contributions on this topic and a vast number of plant taxa have been used for treating animal ailments in Asia, Africa and Central Europe. Thus, the use of homeopathic and phytotherapeutic remedies in veterinary medicine has gained interest, among other reasons, due to increasing demands on the quality of meat and milk products such as the requirements for producing organic food goods. However, within the industrialized and urban society there is an increasing interest in alternative or complementary medicine which, together with other natural therapies, are based on the use of medicinal plants. This knowledge is generally transmitted orally from generation to generation and, as other traditional beliefs, is currently threatened by technological development, sociocultural changes and environmental changes. Traditional veterinary knowledge is comprised by a collection of beliefs and practices regarding animal welfare that involves the use of natural resources (plant and animals) and other materials.
Knowledge on medicinal applications of native plants will allow future validations and tests for new homeopathic or phytotherapeutic preparations.Įven in developed countries, veterinary care and animal welfare in rural populations is based on ethnomedical veterinary practices, particularly when access to western veterinary products is difficult or too expensive for the local farmer. Veterinary medicine is a fountain of relevant vernacular knowledge, a permanent source for testing new applications with valuable ethnobotanical interest.
Although the traditional veterinary knowledge seems to be similar or else is inlcuded in the local human ethnomedicine, sharing a common group of plants, it has distinct traits originated by a constant assessment of new applications specifically destined to the treatment of animals. Together with a vast repertoire of plant pharmacopoeia, the therapies also involve religious or ritualistic practices and other popular remedies that evidence the influence of traditional Hispanic-European knowledge.
Native plants were mostly used as skin cicatrizants, disinfectants or for treating digestive disorders. Veterinary ethnobotanical knowledge was specialized, restricted, in general, to cattle breeders (mainly men) and to a less degree to healers, and was independent of the age of the interviewees. ResultsĪ total of 127 medicinal uses were registered, corresponding to 70 species of plants belonging to 39 botanic families. A comparison between traditional veterinary medicine and previous human medicine studies developed in the region was performed by analyzing the percentages of common species and uses, and by considering Sorensen's Similarity Index. Non-parametric statistic was used to evaluate differences in medicinal plant knowledge, use, and valorization by local people. Plants speciemens were collected with the informants and their vernacular and scientific names were registered in a database. Based participant observation and open and semi-structured interviews we obtained information on the traditional practices of diagnosis and healing, focusing on the veterinary uses given to plants (part of the plant used, method of preparation and administration). Methodsįieldwork was carried out as part of an ethnobotanic regional study where 64 informants were interviewed regarding medicinal plants used in veterinary medicine throughout 2001-2010. Our particular goals were to: characterize veterinary ethnobotanical knowledge considering age, gender and role of the specialists interpret the cultural features of the traditional local veterinary medicine and plant uses associated to it compare the plants used in traditional veterinary medicine, with those used in human medicine in the same region. The aim of this study was to analyze the use of medicinal plants and other traditional therapeutic practices for healing domestic animals and cattle. This is a first description of the main ethnoveterinary features of the peasants in the Sierras de Córdoba.