Ethnoveterinary Practices in Livestock: Animal Production, Healthcare, and Livelihood Development

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About this Research Topic

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Background

Ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) is a field, for protecting animal health and treating illnesses, that is associated with traditional beliefs and indigenous knowledge and practices. Both the cultural skills and knowledge are transferred from generation to generation. This cultural reservoir is disappearing day by day in some parts of the developed world. However, in remote and underdeveloped areas of the world, EVM is silently playing a vital role in sustainable livestock production.

All living individuals' health is a dynamic and continuing process of coping with and responding to everything we encounter in our environment that could impact us. Both humans and animals are exposed to disease-causing bacteria, parasites, and a variety of stressors. To deal with these pathogens, all living creatures have an immune system that needs be nourished. Animal health has long been recognized as having an impact on production, as well as the safety and quality of animal products. In recent years, it has become widely acknowledged that an animal's mental state and capacity to perform normal behaviors are affected by poor health (also known as "animal welfare" or "animal well-being"). Poor animal welfare is also having an increasingly negative influence on animal health and, as a result, food safety and meat quality. When human activities have an influence on animals, it is our duty to ensure that their well-being is maintained. This entails providing them with clean water and a nutritious meal, as well as an appropriate environment, the opportunity to exhibit natural behaviors, and protection from suffering, anxiety, discomfort, pain, injury, and illness.

Most livestock diseases are treated by using indigenous herbal medicines extracted from the plants. Across the globe, millions of aboriginal people use the plants that grow in their communities for a variety of purposes, including diseases treatment and feed. One percent of the total known species (about 391,000) has a history of being utilized in food, while 10 to 15% are widely employed in traditional medicine. Medicinal plant research is essential for the development of novel options for obtaining pharmacological products that benefit human and animal health as they are strongly linked to the health of ecosystem in which they exist. Herbal remedy is an essential part of traditional healing practices among indigenous peoples all over the world. Plant-based ethnoveterinary medicine is extensively used across the world since livestock raising is an integral part of the livelihoods. Medicinal plants have been widely utilized in local communities as a main source of prevention and management of livestock illnesses for numerous centuries, since people have learnt the medicinal uses of plants growing locally. Assessing the monitory benefits of this plant-based ethno-veterinary connected directly to the rising cost of cattle raising and upkeep is an intriguing issue. Furthermore, ethnoveterinary medicine is very dynamic and multifunctional since it can cure a variety of livestock illnesses, as well as being widely available in remote areas and less expensive than synthetic medicines. Very little attention has been given to documentation of plants used as EVM and there is an enormous need to document this knowledge. Such plant species with medicinal properties in the field of EVM will provide a baseline for scientifically validated pharmacological assays and may also lead to novel drug discoveries.

Ethnoveterinary investigations, specifically concerning traditional herbal remedies for treating animal diseases, are crucial in many rural areas of the world for several reasons:
(a) to propose effective and inexpensive treatments as alternatives to and complementary to the use of pharmaceuticals,
(b) with a particular focus on reducing antibiotic abuse in animal breeding, which has a negative impact on the quality of animal food products;
(c) to promote the sustainable use of medicinal plant resources in animal care and, as a result, to contribute to rural development policies;
(d) to promote local bio-cultural heritage; and
(e) to examine the relationship between human and veterinary plant usage in order to perhaps identify the origins of herbal treatments.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
• Ethnoveterinary and Ethnoecology
• Human and Biodiversity
• Indigenous communities and Veterinary medicine
• Natural assets and Animal healthcare
• Traditional knowledge and Cultural practices
• Medicinal plants and traditional healers
• Plant Species and folk recipes
• Healthy food and Essential oils
• Biological and Pharmacological assays

Keywords: Ethnoveterinary, ethnoecology, cultural anthropology, sustainable livelihoods, ethnography, ecosystem services, traditional healers

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