1. Ethnoveterinary contemporary knowledge of farmers in pre-alpine and alpine regions of the Swiss cantons of Bern and Lucerne compared to ancient and recent literature : is there a tradition?
- Author
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Stucki, Karin, Cero, Maja Dal, Vogl, Christan R., Ivemeyer, Silvia, Meier, Beat, Maeschli, Ariane, Hamburger, Matthias, Walkenhorst, Michael, Stucki, Karin, Cero, Maja Dal, Vogl, Christan R., Ivemeyer, Silvia, Meier, Beat, Maeschli, Ariane, Hamburger, Matthias, and Walkenhorst, Michael
- Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance: The term “traditional” is well established in European (human) medicine and even appears in recent European regulations on herbal medicinal products connected to a simplified registration. In contrast, a scientific discussion of a Traditional European Veterinary Herbal Medicine is still lacking in spite of a rising interest, in herbal medicine for animals in particular of veterinarians. There is only limited systematic ethnoveterinary research in Europe, with exception of the Mediterranean region, Switzerland and Austria. We conducted a survey on the ethnoveterinary knowledge of farmers in the pre-alpine and alpine regions of the Swiss cantons of Bern and Lucerne. We compared the findings with earlier studies conducted in Switzerland and with recent and past human and veterinary medicinal literature. Aim of the study: We wanted to know to what extent (dependent to different definition of the term “traditional”) the ethnoveterinary knowledge of Swiss farmers could be considered as “traditional” in a European veterinary medicinal context. Material and methods: Semistructured interviews with 44 dialog partners, mainly smallholder cattle farmers, were conducted in 2014. Detailed information about homemade herbal remedies (plant species, plant part, manufacturing process) and the corresponding use reports (target animal species, category of use, route of administration, dosage, source of knowledge, frequency of use, last time of use and farmers satisfaction) were collected. To compare our data with literature, one German book of veterinary pharmacology published in 1900, one typescript of Swiss lectures in veterinary pharmacology from 1944, four books of veterinary herbal medicine published between 1984 and 2016, and one recent publication comparing current Swiss (human) ethnomedicinal plant knowledge with modern and past literature were analyzed. Results: Information on a total of 315 homemade remedies containing one single plant species
- Published
- 2023