Application of ethnoveterinary medicine: Where do we stand?
Evelyn Mathias and Raul Perezgrovas

Ethnoveterinary medicine – a boon for improving the productivity of livestock in rural India
D. Ravindra and K. R. Rao

Alternate systems for village animal healthcare using ethnoveterinary medicines
Akkara J. John

Traditional animal health services: a case study from the Godwar area of Rajasthan
Hanwant Singh Rathore, Shravan Singh Rathore, and Ilse Köhler-Rollefson

Provision of sustainable animal health delivery systems, which incorporate traditional livestock knowledge, to marginalised pastoralist areas
D. Akabwai, T. Leyland, and C. Stem

The integration of ethnoveterinary knowledge into a community-based animal health project working with the Dinka and Nuer in Southern Sudan
Stephen Blakeway, David Adolph, B. J. Linquist, and Bryony Jones

Somali ethnoveterinary medicine and private animal health services: Can old and new systems work together?
Andy Catley and Robert Walker

Sustainable options for sheep extension and development derived from ethnoveterinary research in highland Chiapas, Mexico
Raul Perezgrovas and Norma Farrera

Practising veterinary medicine in a developing country using acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, and allopathy
Ann-si Li

Scope of homoeopathy in veterinary practice
V. A. Sapre

Over the last several decades, development and change have replaced local knowledge and practices at an increasing and alarming rate. But many development projects have proved to be unsustainable: after funds run out, local people are left in a dilemma: they cannot afford or access the technologies and services introduced from outside, but they have forgotten their own ‘indigenous’ knowledge. Or their environment has changed and with it the resource base necessary to apply their indigenous knowledge. To avoid such dilemmas, advocates of sustainable, bottom-up development postulate that reviving indigenous knowledge within communities, and its transfer between communities, can provide opportunities for sustainable and cost-effective solutions.

This situation is also true for livestock development. Indigenous animal management and healthcare (ethnoveterinary medicine) offer great potential for development. Still, livestock development programmes and projects have been slow to integrate ethnoveterinary information and practices.

This paper first discusses the present state and trends of the application of ethnoveterinary medicine by projects at the community level. It then looks at the different actors and factors influencing the application of ethnoveterinary medicine. Finally, it highlights which actions are needed to facilitate the application of ethnoveterinary medicine. Because of the scarcity of written information on these questions, many points should be treated as hypotheses that should be verified. It is hoped that this paper will thus stimulate research on these hypotheses.

In many places in the world, livestock raisers – settled and nomadic – use ethnoveterinary practices and remedies that they have learned from past generations. The characteristics, sophistication, and intensity of these ethnoveterinary systems differ greatly among individuals, societies, and regions. Little has been published on the factors determining these variations. It would be beyond the scope of this paper to attempt to assess the extent of this ongoing local use of ethnoveterinary medicine. This paper addresses this question only insofar as it provides the basis for and influences outside attempts to promote and apply ethnoveterinary medicine. These attempts involve soliciting and selecting ethnoveterinary information, remedies, and practices, and using them to manage animal health and production.

Research projects on ethnoveterinary medicine by far outweigh projects that build on local ethnoveterinary systems or apply selected practices at the community level. This statement is based on a categorisation of abstracts in the annotated bibliography on ethnoveterinary medicine by Martin et al. (forthcoming) (Table 1). Only about 3% of the 472 abstracts that were available in October 1997 reported on the application of ethnoveterinary medicine at the community level. About 10.5% contained practical tips, i.e., information on remedies and practices validated through practical experience but not necessarily scientifically proven.

The bulk of the abstracts (42%) were descriptions of ethnoveterinary systems, or lists of remedies or medicinal plants and their use. Only 2.5% of the abstracts provided information on field methodologies. The remainder (42%) referred to applied field studies, analytical reviews and discussions of ethnoveterinary medicine, discussions of specific topics, or pharmacological and clinical studies.

Table 1. Categorisation of abstracts in Martin et al. (forthcoming)¹.

The percentage of studies on pharmacognosy in Table 1 seems to be very low. This could have two causes:

• Many pharmacognosy studies have been done on plants used in human medicine. Since medicinal plants for humans and animals often overlap, the pharmacognosy of many ethnoveterinary plants has already been studied in the human context and does not need to be repeated for animals.
• It seems that studies on herbal medicines are especially often done in India and published in Indian scientific journals, or journals and newsletters produced by pharmaceutical firms. But many of these publications are difficult to access outside India.

The latter is probably also an explanation for the low percentage of clinical studies represented in the bibliography by Martin et al. A further reason could be that clinical studies on ethnoveterinary remedies in livestock are indeed rare.

However, the categorisation of abstracts also indicates a trend towards the field application of ethnoveterinary medicine: the majority of the publications categorised in Table 1 as ‘practical tips’ and ‘projects applying ethnoveterinary medicine’ have been written since 1989. This trend is also reflected in the number of projects that participants of the 1997 Pune conference on ethnoveterinary medicine were able to identify world-wide (see the annex Ethnoveterinary projects) and in activities after this conference (see the annex Ethnoveterinary events since Pune).

Furthermore, it is likely that the efforts to apply ethnoveterinary medicine at the field level are actually more numerous than the literature indicates. Non-government organisations (NGOs), extension personnel, and others working at the community level may use ethnoveterinary practices but rarely document or publish their work widely. However, it would be wrong to generalise that NGOs working at the field level promote ethnoveterinary medicine. In 1994 in Mexico, for example, NGOs launched numerous field projects. Because they had little time to invest in research or look at previous studies, a good number used conventional approaches – promoting exotic breeds, modern management, and supplies for free – even in areas where ethnoveterinary medicine development had just started to take off. The experience of one of the authors (Mathias) also confirms that many NGO staff are still unfamiliar with participatory concepts or the application of indigenous knowledge.

Commercialisation of herbal remedies can help to overcome some drawbacks of stockraisers having to prepare their own remedies, i.e., the cumbersome preparation of medicines and the seasonality of certain medicinal plants. Our impression is that the commercialisation of herbal medicines for animals in India is further progressed than in most other countries, perhaps with the exception of China. Unfortunately, there is little information on this topic in the literature. Puyvelde (1994) reports on the commercialisation of a herbal remedy against mange in Rwanda, and in Indonesia commercially produced jamu (traditional medicine) is available for both humans and livestock.

In India, the commercialisation of herbal medicines may be connected with the long tradition of Ayurvedic medicine in this country. Ayurvedic scripts contain information on many plants and are often cited as an indication for the efficacy of these plants.

Still, commercialised herbal medicine may be expensive for smallholders, especially when compared to self-made drugs (Anjaria 1996). And if commercial herbal drugs are exported to other countries, they may there become nearly as expensive as other imported allopathic drugs (RDP Nepal, 1994, pers. comm.). Unfortunately, there is little information on the economics of commercialised herbal drugs versus ethnoveterinary remedies prepared from scratch at the field level.

Many actors are involved in applying ethnoveterinary medicine: animal keepers and owners; local healers; extension services and field staff of development projects; community-based animal health workers; private practitioners; staff at colleges and universities; and government officials, decision-makers, and development planners.

Factors influencing the use of ethnoveterinary medicine by these groups include:

• remoteness of a project’s location;
• a community’s way of life (e.g., settled or nomadic);
• environmental conditions;
• availability of alternatives;
• characteristics of the local versus introduced systems in terms of efficacy, costs, availability, and cultural feasibility;
• economic value and purpose of the animals kept and the relationship between humans and animals;
• available information on proven effective indigenous drugs and practices;
• incentives to promote local practices rather than ready-made approaches;
• status thinking;
• recognition of the value of ethnoveterinary medicine.

The combination of factors is different for each group. In order to enhance successfully the application of ethnoveterinary medicine, it is necessary to understand the motivations and constraints of the different groups.

This group is not only the origin of ethnoveterinary medicine, but also its end user. So far, however, very little of the large amount of information that has been taken out of communities has trickled back. And very rarely do communities receive information on ethnoveterinary medicine from elsewhere. This is partly the fault of the outsiders who do not make an effort to share results from field research with the communities involved, since this would require substantial additional work: translating texts into the local language and packaging information in a way that non-scientists can understand. The factors below also influence animal keepers’ use of ethnoveterinary medicine.

Communities in remote rural areas may not have much choice but use what their environment makes available. The situation is different if people live in areas with improved infrastructure and have access to commercial drugs. On the other hand, we cannot generalise that people will prefer commercial drugs if only they can access them. Local people may be concerned about losing of their own system and prefer to use ethnoveterinary medicine (e.g., Catley and Walker this volume).

The previous point was reinforced by a study from Indonesia (Mathias-Mundy et al. 1992). It showed that raisers of goats and sheep resorted mostly to ethnoveterinary medicine, although their village was only 15 km away from Bogor, a city with one the country’s best veterinary faculties, excellent veterinary services, and good public transportation. But farmers indicated that the veterinarian rarely visited the village. On the other hand, the research team noted during the field research that poultry raisers obviously had contact with commercial firms supplying them with modern drugs. This indicates that considerations about the animal, its value, and its purpose will influence the choice of the medical system. The study by Shanklin (1996) supports this hypothesis: farmers in Donegal, Ireland, would call veterinarians only for their cattle, but not for their sheep. This was still the case when cattle prices dropped dramatically near to those for sheep. Further arguments in support of this can be found by McCorkle (forthcoming).

According to Ghirotti (1996), the choice of cattle raisers in southern Ethiopia between modern and ethnoveterinary treatments was statistically not correlated to income. A higher percentage of people used traditional medicine for their animals than for themselves. Ghirotti explained this in two ways: people had higher trust in ethnoveterinary than human ethnomedicine, and they considered the cost of commercial drugs for humans as more justifiable than for animals.

Several studies indicate that the healthcare choice is also influenced by the type of the disease (e.g., Rathore et al. this volume). Herders of Turkana and Samburu communities in Kenya identified about 60 diseases of their livestock and grouped these as treatable, or not treatable, using local remedies. Treatable diseases included retained placenta, eye diseases, bloat and skin conditions such as wounds, streptothricosis, mange, lice, fleas, and leeches (Wanyama 1997).

Costs, effects and side-effects, and cultural appropriateness of the introduced system are other factors that can influence a stockraiser’s decision whether to call on the introduced system or go with the local system.

We stated above that both richer and poorer people may resort to ethnoveterinary medicine. However, economic considerations do become important if clients would like to use commercial drugs. The question whether and how much local stockraisers are willing to pay is receiving increasing attention because of its importance for the privatisation of veterinary services. However, evidence whether farmers are willing and able to pay is mixed (see, for example, Holden et al. 1996:56) and needs further research.

Past experiences with commercial drugs and observations of how well the drug works influence a stockraiser’s decision whether to use conventional veterinary services. Any veterinarian working in the field knows how difficult it is to regain a farmer’s trust after a prescribed medication did not work or – even worse – had harmful or lethal side-effects. In remote rural areas where veterinary and extension services are to be newly introduced, paraveterinary services can help to get people used to veterinary services. This is often overlooked by veterinary associations and conventional veterinary services, who see paravets as competition rather than as allies.

The product delivered and the delivery system must be culturally appropriate. In Nigeria, Hausa and Fulani fear supernatural reprisals if they separate day-old chicks from their mothers. During Nigeria’s ‘Operation Cock’ that seeked to introduce exotic chickens on a large scale, extensionists had great difficulties to convince farmers to buy young exotic chicks (Ibrahim and Abdu 1996).

We could hypothesise that people who have a functioning, sophisticated ethnoveterinary medicine system are less likely to recourse to conventional veterinary services than are people who have developed few effective local remedies and practices. An indication for this might be the fact that pastoralists preferred to treat their own animals rather than to call the veterinarian (Grandin et al. 1991). Still, the pastoralists in the previous example were also interested in learning the use of commercial drugs. Several other factors probably play a role here, such as the time-consuming and labour-intensive preparation of local remedies, the prevailing diseases, value of the animals, and status.

The choice of which medical system to use may also depend on the gender and background of the user. Van’t Hooft (1988) reports that Nicaraguan men were more likely to treat their chickens with antibiotics, while women preferred to use home remedies. And pastoralists who know of many effective remedies are probably more likely to recourse to ethnoveterinary medicine than are settled farmers who are relatively new livestock raisers.

It is unfortunate that people often regard ‘traditional’ as meaning ‘low-status’, something to be ashamed of. As a result, they may prefer ‘modern’ solutions even for problems where the local solutions have been working perfectly well. This is not only true in rural areas but elsewhere in the world, and plays a role in all groups discussed.

Healers are healthcare providers. But they come from the same background as their clientele and often they are animal owners and keepers themselves. Therefore many of the factors outlined in the previous section apply to them too, while most of the factors discussed below for extensionists and project staff are much less relevant for healers. Further factors that will influence the type of services healers offer are their specialisation, the condition of the environment and availability of medicinal plants, and possibly changing demands of their clients.

Many extensionists do not come from the area where they work, so may be unfamiliar with local customs, knowledge and language. They have been trained outside, and may feel that this newly acquired know-how is superior to villagers’ knowledge. Both this and status thinking may make them prefer outside, high-tech solutions.

This situation also applies to many NGO staff. Possible exceptions are local NGOs formed to serve their members’ community or region. But although their members are familiar with local languages and conditions, they do not necessarily promote ethnoveterinary medicine. The same is true for community-based animal healthcare workers serving their own communities.

Extensionsists and other healthcare providers are trained in western science, with its emphasis on approaches and technologies originally designed for areas with good infrastructure and easy access to the supply of these technologies. The training rarely equips extensionists with the ability and tools to develop locally specific, fine-tuned solutions together with local people.

The job of extensionists is typically to promote government-recommended technologies. Extensionists are often evaluated in terms of the number of farmers adopting these technologies. They receive little credit for learning about indigenous knowledge, or for working with livestock raisers to discover, test, and refine locally based technologies. Compared to the extension of ready-made packages, this is a slow process and does not produce quick, spectacular successes. Because extension services are directed towards quick fixes, they provide few incentives for the promotion of ethnoveterinary medicine at the field level. This situation may change as in many places animal healthcare services are undergoing major restructuring. Some services are being privatised, and a growing number of projects are introducing community-based healthcare approaches (see, for example, Akabwai et al. this volume).

The situation is different for NGO staff. In many countries, NGOs need the permission of the government to work at the field level. But their staff do not fall under the same incentive system and controls as government personnel. Instead, their job is to help implement the NGO’s goals and targets. These may or may not be in favour of ethnoveterinary medicine (see above).

Field-level healthcare providers need information on effective drugs and remedies to promote. A major obstacle to the use of ethnoveterinary medicine is the scarcity of information on its efficacy. This situation is changing somewhat. In Table 1, 10.5% of the literature abstracted by Martin et al. (forthcoming) contain practical tips, 7.5% report the results of clinical studies, and 5% discuss the efficacy of indigenous breeds and management. These publications provide at least a basis from where to start. Many of the studies classified as ‘applied field studies’ also contain information useful for field application. But promoting ethnoveterinary medicine widely requires field projects and publications that demonstrate how ethnoveterinary and international veterinary medicine can be combined. It also needs ethnoveterinary remedies that can be adapted or modified in other regions.

Private practitioners are actually part of the group of healthcare providers. What makes them different is that the services they offer are market- rather than system-driven. We cited already the example from Germany where growing demand for alternative treatments is stimulating the establishment of training courses and clinics specialised on homeopathy, acupuncture, and phytotherapy. This emphasises that people promoting ethnoveterinary medicine need to be convinced about its value and have access to information on effective practices that they can use in their clinics.

So far, ethnoveterinary medicine is little represented in mainstream veterinary education (see Fielding this volume). The set of factors influencing staff working in higher education is probably similar to those described for healthcare providers. Since educators are essential in preparing future generations of veterinarians for their assignment as healthcare providers and decision-makers, they are a key group to convince of the efficacy of ethnoveterinary medicine.

In addition to factors already discussed for the previous three groups, economics will be a key consideration for this group. The trend towards privatisation of veterinary services and search for alternatives has been triggered by the empty coffers of many governments and donors. Still, ethnoveterinary medicine is rarely mentioned in mainstream documents because it is not considered as an effective alternative.

When discussing the promotion of ethnoveterinary medicine in development, it is important to keep in mind that ethnoveterinary medicine consists of more than just medicines. It includes also management practices; information about diseases, animal production and breeding; tools and technologies – in short, the whole system that local people, through trial and error and also deliberate experimentation, developed to keep their animals healthy and productive.

Ideally projects should learn about a community’s ethnoveterinary system and practices before introducing anything from the outside. They should build on this resource in two ways:

1. they should design – ideally in close collaboration with the community – a livestock production and a healthcare system that build on and are compatible with the local ethnoveterinary system.
2. they should select information on all local practices that could be useful for solving the specific problems that have been identified and need to be tackled.

Promising ethnoveterinary practices should be considered as one alternative among several. This means they have to be measured against the same criteria as outside technologies: efficacy, ease of preparation, availability, affordability, effect on the environment, and cultural appropriateness. The last point is especially important if practices are to be transferred from one place to another, but within a community, too, practices can become inappropriate due to rapid change. Finally, the most suited practices – whether local or introduced – should be selected, if necessary tested, improved or blended with outside technologies, and promoted. The goal is the development of a healthcare package that is as effective as possible while meeting the expectations and needs of the clientele.

However, measuring ethnoveterinary medicine against the same criteria as for other technologies does not necessarily mean using the same methods. Many study methods used for western science fail to give justice to local practices because they investigate individual aspects rather than systems as a whole. An example is the performance of indigenous breeds: if we study only production, local breeds will always lose against high-producing imported breeds. But if both input and outputs are considered, or the different functions local breeds are fulfilling are added up, the balance may tip in favour of the local breed.

To learn about the efficacy of local knowledge, we need to develop and apply study methods that allow to factor in characteristics that are important to the local user but cannot not necessarily be expressed in monetary terms. For example, a farmer may keep a goat under extensive management. This minimises costs but also reduces production. However, the goat is still valuable to the farmer because she can sell it if she needs cash for an emergency. The ‘low maintenance’ and ‘living bank account’ factors would need to be considered when comparing the performance of the local goat with high-producing breeds.

There exists already a body of literature on the validity of ethnoveterinary medicine (e.g., the abstracts classified as ‘clinical studies’ and ‘practical tips’ in Table 1). This literature should be systematically screened to identify promising practices and remedies for further testing.

Few ethnoveterinary remedies have been tested clinically in livestock species (rather than in laboratory animals); more such studies are needed. To get the true picture of a remedy’s efficacy, it is important that such studies follow as closely as possible the local way of preparation and application; this is to ensure that the results reflect the efficacy of the remedy and are not influenced by other preparation or application methods.

More field projects are needed that study the application of ethnoveterinary medicine, and that develop approaches for building on the local system and using selected practices either alone or blending them with outside technologies.

Information from studies on efficacy and field application need to be appropriately packaged and made available to groups involved in promoting ethnoveterinary medicine. For field-level healthcare providers, information materials need to provide details about practices, technologies, remedies, and methodological approaches. They need to be written up in simple, easy-to-understand language, free of scientific jargon. Governments and decision-makers in development are busy and have to deal with many subjects (many that they consider more important than ethnoveterinary medicine). Therefore information materials for them need to be short, informative, and impressive, so as catch their attention and provide a maximum of information on the efficacy and potential of ethnoveterinary practices in a small space.

Such information materials and other advocacy work are essential to improve the recognition of the value of ethnoveterinary medicine and to elevate its status. They will also help open the way for integrating ethnoveterinary medicine into university and college curricula – another important step in facilitating the application of ethnoveterinary medicine at the field level.

Indian historical accounts envisage livestock as a measure of wealth. The entire child hood of lord Krishna revolves around cattle and milk products like cream, butter, ghee, and butter milk. The famous battle between Arjun on behalf of Raja of Virat and Kauravas known popularly as Uttara Go-grahan is a clear indication of the importance accorded to cattle in those days.

The population explosion has increased pressure on the land leading to a paradoxical situation wherein livestock keeping is considered as unprofitable because of its low productivity, largely due to inadequate feed and fodder resources. The poor status of the veterinary healthcare infrastructure has added another complicated dimension to profitable livestock farming in general and sustainable rural livestock farming in specific.

Due to relentless efforts for the last 50 years by the government of India, state governments, and animal scientists, the productivity of livestock has improved remarkably in terms of milk and egg production. However, the current status is far from satisfactory when compared with global standards. If the Indian livestock industry is to become competitive in global markets, planned efforts are needed covering all aspects of livestock development with special emphasis on veterinary healthcare.

India has vast livestock resources. These are playing a pivotal role in providing employment to small and marginal farmers as well as to agricultural labourers who are under-employed due to seasonality in agriculture operations. According to the 1992 livestock census (DAHD 1997), India’s cattle and buffalo population is 204.53 million cattle and 83.50 million buffaloes which constitutes 50% of the world’s buffalo and 20% of the world’s cattle population. With 50.80 million sheep and 115.28 goats, India ranked sixth among all countries in the world. It has 307.07 millions poultry. However, according to industry sources, there were 104.9 million commercial layer birds and 456.9 million commercial broilers during 1994-95 (NABARD 1996). The cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig, and poultry populations had growth rates of 0.48%, 1.91%, 2.14%, 0.90%, 3.79%, and 2.21% respectively during the period of 1987-1992 (DAHD 1997). However, as per the experts’ group estimation, the growth rate of layer birds varies between 5-10% and that of broilers in the range of 8-20% for various states, depending on how far the infrastructure is developed (NABARD 1996).

Livestock farming is elastic in nature in terms of scale of operations as well as human labour requirement. Therefore it is considered a supplementary occupation and also a source of additional income for those engaged in agricultural operations. Further it recycles agriculture by-products and waste into food and protective materials. In spite of the various constraints, the above encouraging factors helped India to emerge as the largest milk producer with a milk production of 74.7 million tonnes (1998). However, the average milk yield per dairy animal is far less from the yield by dairy animals of advanced countries.

The total egg production of 5340 million in 1971 has grown to more than 30000 million in 1998, and the broiler production has gone up from only 4 million to around 600 million. Thus India emerged as the 6^th largest egg producer and 19^th in broiler production in the world. Despite the strident development of the poultry sector in India, the per capita consumption of eggs and poultry meat is very low with 33 eggs and 630g poultry meat per annum as against 200 eggs and 1.5 kg poultry meat in developed countries (NABARD 1998). According to provisional estimates of the Central Statistical Organisation, the gross value of the outputs from the livestock sector at current prices was about Rs 827040 million during 1995-96 (DAHD 1997).

The Indian veterinary infrastructure can be classified into two broad categories: traditional veterinary medicine and modern veterinary medicine.

Right from the Mahabharatha times, veterinary medicine was practised in India and documented in Sanskrit scriptures and literature in vernacular languages. The information in Sanskrit scriptures like the ‘Asva Vaidyaka by Nakula’, ‘Palakpya’, ‘Garuda Purana’, ‘Asvayur Veda Sarasindu by Vysampayana’, and ‘Asvayur Veda Sara Sindhu by Malldeva’ is well classified and documented according to the principles of the humoral theory of the Ayurvedic system. A few vernacular scriptures like ‘Sahadeva Pasu Vaidya Sastramu’ (Telugu) and ‘Mattu Vaidya Bodhini’ (Tamil) are dealing with traditional veterinary medicine.

Apart from the above, hundreds of references on treating animals with the locally available plant resources can be traced in vernacular articles which do not have the authenticity and authorship of the literature. Furthermore, numerous undocumented veterinary practices are in vogue in rural areas of India.

Although Ayurvedic veterinary treatments are well documented in various Sanskrit scriptures, language barriers prevent their effective use. Some information has been translated though. For example, Singh (1993) gives an account of 36 medicinal preparations based on parts of the neem plant.

Since independence, all efforts in India were concentrated on developing an allopathic based veterinary infrastructure entirely under the government sector. There were about 310.269 million adult units as per 1992 livestock census (Appendix 1), assuming that either one cattle, one buffalo, 10 sheep, 10 goats, 5 pigs, or 100 poultry are equivalent to one adult unit (MOA 1976). In all, there were 45760 veterinary institutions in India during 1996, comprising of 7415 veterinary hospitals, 14573 veterinary dispensaries and 23682 veterinary aid centres (Appendix 2). There were 26864 veterinarians on the whole in India in 1989 as per estimations made by European consultants. The combined output of veterinarians from 26 veterinary colleges in India is 1442 per year (Kurup 1995).

In the light of the most recent authentic information on veterinary institutions available in 1996, the equivalent of adult livestock units for the same year was calculated with the help of the species-wise annual growth rates observed during 1987-1992 (see above). The resulting projected number of total adult units during 1996 is 322.085 million excluding horses, yaks, mithun, and other minor species. The turnover of the veterinary pharmaceutical and biological industry is Rs 3000 million (DAHD 1996).

The above data indicate that there is one veterinary institution for every 7052 adult units. Similarly one veterinarian is serving around 10000 adult units on the assumption of 15% veterinarians in the support infrastructure. Further, the expenses for veterinary medicine and biologicals work out to less than Rs 13 per adult unit per annum. The severe short supply of veterinary medicines is another constraint for a fast development of the livestock sector. Thus in terms of availability of veterinary institutions, veterinarians, and outputs from the pharmaceutical and biological industry, the existing infrastructure is inadequate. A detailed analysis of such inadequacies is presented below.

The veterinary healthcare infrastructure has been identified as the most critical constraint to improving the productivity of Indian livestock. The scope for ethnoveterinary medicine to improve this situation is multifaceted. This section gives some potential aspects of ethnoveterinary medicine in catering to requirements for veterinary services of the vast livestock population in rural areas.

The ideal veterinary infrastructure should have one veterinary doctor for every 5000 adult units by the year 2000 (MOA, 1976). However, subsequent reports looked at the number of institutions and stated that the ideal veterinary infrastructure should have one veterinary institution for every 5000 adult units. Thus the gap was estimated to be 18747 (Appendix 2) when considering one veterinary institution for every 5000 adult units. In percent terms, it is approximately 41% of the present infrastructure, which is undoubtedly a herculean task to achieve. Furthermore, economic liberalisation is emphasising that the cost of development should be borne by development itself. In that case, the veterinary services provided by the future infrastructure would be beyond the reach of the rural poor. Therefore ethnoveterinary medicine should make an organised effort to supplement the current veterinary healthcare system in view of the unlimited potential for veterinary services in terms of institutional infrastructure.

The spatial distribution of the veterinary infrastructure in India is presented in Table 1. The data amply indicate that the veterinary infrastructure is unevenly distributed. Some states like Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are highly deficient in the number of veterinary institutions. In some other states, i.e., Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, the status of the veterinary infrastructure is highly critical. In Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan where co-operative dairy farming is popular, the veterinary services are partly provided by the milk unions which will definitely provide some solace to the rural farmers. Considering all these factors, ethnoveterinary practitioners should take a lead role in providing the veterinary services in states where existing veterinary infrastructure is deficient by 50% or more.

Table 1. Spatial distribution of the veterinary infrastructure in India and its status against requirements as per targets.

As mentioned earlier, the National Commission on Agriculture has recommended that there should be at least one veterinarian for 5000 adult units. In such case, the gap between the availability of qualified veterinarians and the demand for them is highly disturbing. Considering the output of veterinarians from the 26 veterinary colleges in India, the cumulative availability of veterinarians in 1996 can be projected at 36958 leaving a gap of 27459. This gap can be filled only after 19 years when ignoring the number of veterinarians who retire from the services, the expected increase in capacity of the existing veterinary colleges, and the veterinarians working in the support infrastructure. Furthermore, the demand for veterinary services is likely to grow further with the improvement in numbers and productivity of livestock. Ethnoveterinary medicine can play a crucial role in supplementing the efforts of the existing manpower. Actually, ethnoveterinary medicine is already supporting the veterinary healthcare system in rural areas but so far this support is sporadic and not reaching its full potential.

The other critical constraint of the Indian veterinary healthcare system is the inadequate supply of biologicals and pharmaceutical products. The livestock policy development document of the Government of India reported that the turnover of veterinary healthcare products was Rs 3000 million in 1993. Considering 2-2.5% of the gross value of livestock products on veterinary service and 70% of this as expenditure on medicines and other healthcare products, the gap in demand and supply of veterinary healthcare products can be estimated to be 2.0–2.5 times of the existing supply (Table 2).

The expected growth in the veterinary pharmaceutical and biological industry would be set off by the growth in the livestock sector in terms of quality as well as quantity. This gap could well be bridged by an alternative medical healthcare system. Ethnoveterinary medicine can be an appropriate tool for establishing such an alternative system of veterinary healthcare in the coming years.

The analysis of the gaps has to be considered in the light of the financial implications of bridging such gaps, i.e., the costs for establishing the different veterinary institutions, expenses for producing a veterinarian, and also the capital outlays needed for building the infrastructure for veterinary healthcare products. From this, we can conclude that ethnoveterinary practitioners are a boon for Indian rural areas with their vast livestock population, provided a strategic approach would be evolved for giving proper direction to this field.

Table 2. Gap between demand and supply of veterinary healthcare products.