Local knowledge held by farmers in Eastern Tyrol (Austria) about the use of plants to maintain and improve animal health and welfare.

Christian R Vogl,Brigitte Vogl-Lukasser,Michael Walkenhorst

doi:10.1186/s13002-016-0104-0

Abstract

BackgroundThe sustainable management of animal health and welfare is of increasing importance to consumers and a key topic in the organic farming movement. Few systematic studies have been undertaken investigating farmers’ local knowledge related to this issue. Ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) is a discipline focusing on local knowledge and folk methods in veterinary medicine, however most ethnoveterinarian studies primarily address the treatment of animal diseases. Very few studies have explored prophylactic methods.MethodsAn ethnoveterinary research project in Eastern Tyrol (Austria) was conducted in 2004 and 2005 to gather information about local knowledge of animal husbandry from 144 informants, with the emphasis on plants that maintain livestock health and welfare.ResultsInformants mentioned a total of 87 plants and 22 plant-based generic terms in the context of maintaining and improving livestock health and welfare. The most important preventive measures for maintaining and improving animal health and welfare were practices related to “fodder” and “feeding”. In this category the plants mentioned could be grouped according to three different perceptions about their effect on animals: “Good or bad fodder”, “Functional fodder” and “Fodder medicine”. In addition to fodder, environmental management, the human-animal relationship, household remedies and cultural/religious activities were also mentioned. When asked about practices in the past that maintained animal health and well-being, interviewees mentioned, for example, the importance of the diversity of sources that used to be available to obtain feed and fodder.ConclusionsThe informants’ approach that feeding is central to livestock welfare is in line with the standard scientific literature on animal health, including in organic farming. Various scientific studies into common fodder evaluate the nutritive and dietary value, efficiency and safety of fodder. Future studies also have to consider the evaluation of traditional, local fodder resources. In fact, the value of ‘food as medicine’ for humans in the context of local knowledge has been widely assessed, but the potential health benefits of fodder and nutraceuticals in local and traditional ethnoveterinary methods require further attention.

Highlights

The sustainable management of animal health and welfare is of increasing importance to consumers and a key topic in the organic farming movement
Management measures can be divided into management directly related to the animal and management of the animals’ environment, especially in animal housing (Table 1)
Within the category fodder/feeding, the quality of the fodder and the kind of fodder given to the animals were the most frequent sub-categories mentioned (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

The sustainable management of animal health and welfare is of increasing importance to consumers and a key topic in the organic farming movement. In particular the Council Regulation concerning organic production [1] and its amendments clearly describe methods for assuring animal health on organic farms. According to this regulation, the priority is on keeping livestock healthy through breeding and management measures (including feeding and housing). The thematic priority of the current animal health legal framework of the European Union and the World Organisation for Animal Health [2] is “prevention is better than cure” This approach meets consumers’ demand for high-quality animal food products and responds to increased public interest in the way in which livestock are treated [3,4,5]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion