Medicinal plants and animal health care; experiences from India

India has ancient traditions of animal care using plants. From Ayurveda to folk medicine, plants have been used in treating animals. Recently there has been a shift towards the use of chemicals in treating animals with varied effects on the health and welfare of animals and humans consuming these animals. This paper captures experiences using plant based medicine by a study which ran for several years.

The research study began in 1995 with an annotated bibliography. Subsequently, an action research project was initiated in 6 districts of India to document, validate and disseminate knowledge related to animal health care for different livestock rearing communities. Over 1000 treatments using over 500 plants for about 114 conditions affecting livestock were initially collected using participatory methods. These treatments were screened carefully and a few were selected based on specific criteria including empirical observation, safety, availability and ease of collection & preparation. These were again categorized into three categories based on secondary literature support. Finally about 165 treatments used for about 15 conditions which occurred frequently were shortlisted for conducting trials for validation. Over a 1000 ruminant cases and 4000 heads of poultry have been successfully treated using these plant remedies. The selected preparations have since then been handed back to the community for further use and continued validation.

The project proved that there were several practices and therapies using plants which can very easily solve a number of common health problems of livestock. The challenge is to find ways to sustain and promote these practices in equitable and environmentally sustainable ways. Today, the relevance of plant based medicine in India has increased with challenges posed by multi drug resistance accelerated by the misuse of chemotherapy. There is a need to find ways to reintroduce these plant based therapies in livestock rearing.