Medicinal Animals in Ethnoveterinary Practices: A World Overview

Abstract

Medicinal animals are used as a source of medicine in virtually all cultures. Such use is not restricted to humans, but also extends to the treatment of livestock diseases. Nevertheless, animal-based medicines in ethnoveterinary practices have been neglected and poorly described. This work assesses the global use of animals in traditional veterinary medicine, as well as the perspective of this field for future research. Our results indicated that at least 98 animal species, of which 95% are wild, are used in worldwide traditional veterinary medicine. A high diversity of animal parts/products is used as remedies in ethnooveterinary practices, fat being the most used product, followed by meat, skin/leather, bones, and honey. Several zootherapeutic products are prescribed to treat similar or identical diseases in animals and humans, confirming a trend of co-evolution between

A State‐of‐the‐Art Review of Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Pollution

“…Waste from artisanal and small‐scale Au mining in the Madre de Dios region, Peru, is known to be one of the most important sources of water contamination for Amazonian amphibians (Catenazzi and von May 2014), many of which are used in traditional medicine by Amazonian IPs such as the Yawanawa (Souto et al 2013). Videos recorded with infrared camera traps have evidenced wildlife ingestion of petroleum‐contaminated soils in areas situated within the hunting grounds of the Achuar in the Amazon (Orta‐Martínez et al 2018; Cartró‐Sabaté et al 2019).…”

The use of wild vertebrates in contemporary Spanish ethnoveterinary medicine

“…This useful species richness is much higher than the four species of wild vertebrates collected for our country by Souto et al in their recent world overview (Souto et al, 2013). In their review, those authors collected only the use records gathered by Quave et al (2010) in the Autonomous Community of Castile-La Mancha.…”

“…Until recently, EVM studies have mainly been related to phytotherapy (see Mayer et al, 2014), data on the use of zootherapeutic resources in the health care of domestic animals being scarce. Despite this, the use of animal resources in EVM is currently the major topic in an increasing number of research projects (see http://www.ethnovetweb.com/), and the publication of studies on certain territories, or reviews in international journals dealing with veterinary medicine or pharmacology, is increasingly frequent around the world (Souto et al, 2013;Piluzza et al, 2015;Volpato et al, 2015).…”

“…Parallel to the traditional use of natural resources for curing human disease, people have also treated their animals with a similar arsenal of therapeutic and prophylactic practices (e.g. Jernigan, 2009;Souto et al, 2011aSouto et al, , 2013.…”

Zootherapy in the Amazon: green anaconda ( Eunectes murinus ) fat as a natural medicine to treat wounds

“…Zootherapy may have been originated after the incorporation of animal protein into the human diet (Holzman 2003), but accurate estimates regarding time of origin are hampered by the lack of archaeological evidence (Wing 2000). Zootherapy may also have played an important role in the developing of non-nomadic human cultures, because, in addition to providing treatments for humans, it has also been used to treat diseases in domestic animals (Souto et al 2011a, b;Ferreira et al 2012, Ferreira et al 2013Alves et al 2013a, b;Souto et al 2013).…”