Invited Short Lecture “Contribution of the observation of animal self- medication behaviours to ethno-veterinary medicine: Mahout- Elephant interactions in Thongmyxay district – Laos”

Until recently, based on convergent uses of traditional remedies in human and veterinary medicine, it was somehow assumed that the ethnoveterinary pharmacopoeia was a subset of the human pharmacopoeia extended to animal care. However, studies conducted over the last two decades comparing the plant species locally used in these two domains show that a significant proportion of species are dedicated to animal treatments, raising the question of the origin of these practices, while the multiplication of studies on animal self-medication is giving ground to the idea, found in many folk accounts, of an animal origin of part of the human pharmacopoeia.

Relying on the close relationship that mahouts maintain with their elephants in Laos, we have studied these interactions between animal observation and traditional medicine.

We have highlighted different processes by which observed elephant behaviours interpreted as self- medication can lead to the emergence of various ethnoveterinary practices, ranging from facilitating access for sick elephants to the plants they seek in such cases, to the integration of these items with elements from the local pharmacopoeia into elaborate ethnoveterinary preparations. Furthermore, mahouts uses of some plant items in their own households appear to be more consistent with their observation of elephants' self-medication behaviour than with the use of these items by local healers, supporting the hypothesis of medicinal knowledge transfer from animals to humans.

These data show that traditional human medicine and ethnoveterinary medicine are mutually enriching and that the observation of animals contributes to the development of practices in both areas.

 

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Publication History

Article published online:
16 November 2023