Is there a divide between local medicinal knowledge and Western medicine? a case study among native Amazonians in Bolivia

Background: Interest in ethnomedicine has grown in the last decades, with much research focusing on how local medicinal knowledge can contribute to Western medicine. Researchers have emphasized the divide between practices used by local medical practitioners and Western doctors. However, researchers have also suggested that merging concepts and practices from local medicinal knowledge and Western science have the potential to improve public health and support medical independence of local people. In this article we study the relations between local and Western medicinal knowledge within a native Amazonian population, the Tsimane'. Methods: We used the following methods: 1) participant observation and semi-structured interviews to gather background information, 2) free-listing and pile-sorting to assess whether Tsimane' integrate local medicinal knowledge and Western medicine at the conceptual level, 3) surveys to assess to what extent Tsimane' combine local medicinal knowledge with Western medicine in actual treatments, and 4) a participatory workshop to assess the willingness of Tsimane' and Western medical specialists to cooperate with each other. Results: We found that when asked about medical treatments, Tsimane' do not include Western treatments in their lists, however on their daily practices, Tsimane' do use Western treatments in combination with ethnomedical treatments. We also found that Tsimane' healers and Western doctors express willingness to cooperate with each other and to promote synergy between local and Western medical systems. Conclusion: Our findings contrast with previous research emphasizing the divide between local medical practitioners and Western doctors and suggests that cooperation between both health systems might be possible

The efficacy of four anthelmintics in adult cattle under field conditions

Four anthelmintics bithionol-sulphoxide 35-40 mg/kg. (BS) bithionol-sulphoxide combined with thiabendazole at 100 mg/kg (BS+TB-100) and at 80 mg/kg (BS+TB-80), hexachlorophene 10-15 mg/kg, (HX) and rafoxanide 6-8 mg/kg (RF) were used in adult cattle under Nigerian field conditions. Two treatment schemes were used: 1. one treatment a month (March) before the beginning of the rains (and the period that Fasciola infections were obtained), 2. two treatments, one a month before and one a month after the beginning of the rains.The weight gains, egg counts, and number of animals found infected were recorded from March till August.The total weight gain over the five months period was 37, 24,5, 23, 24.5, 15.5, 17 and 14 kg for the cattle treated with BS+TB-100, BS+TB-80, BS (once), RF (twice), RF (once), HX (twice) and controls respectively.The number of Fasciola infected animals decreased by the following percentages 2 weeks after treatment: 93% for BS, 75% for RF and 28% for HX; the controls showed a definite increase. None of the treatments showed a significant reduction in the number of trichostrongyle infected animals and in egg counts, except the BS+TB-100 group

Epizootiology, pathogenesis and immunoprophylactic trends to control tropical bubaline fasciolosis: an overview

On the Indian sub-continent, nearly 5,000 years ago, the domestication of the riverine buffalo—the incredible Asian dairy animal was initiated. It plays a versatile role in socio-economic upliftment of its owners from the rural agricultural communities in Asian, African, South American and a few European countries. Comparatively, buffaloes are lesser evolved and susceptible to infectious diseases than cattle. However, poor body thermoregulation and wallowing nature predisposed them to snail borne infections, especially tropical fasciolosis—an incessant major constraint on buffalo production and improvement programmes. This review article is an insight into the global prevalence, varied epizootiological factors, offers possible explanation to pathophysiological clinical signs, deleterious effects of the tropical liver fluke, involving hepato-biliary system, haemopoitic system, endocrine glands and their secretions, oxidative stress, altered metabolism and significant fall in food conversion efficiency with unaffected digestibility of nutrients. Besides, the authors have briefly discussed and reviewed the developments and significance of successful immunodiagnostic approaches for detecting and forecasting the disease during early pre-patency and feasibility of developing a cost effective immunoprotection strategies against tropical fasciolosis