Characteristics of informants and their sources of traditional ethnoveterinary knowledge
Most local veterinarians and herbalists worked part-time, mainly in farming or other jobs, such as driver. They were localities with several years of experience in treating livestock diseases and most had low primary school-level education. Traditionally, in Bai culture, women are responsible for housework and men are the breadwinners of the family. Accordingly, men are responsible for feeding the livestock. Traditional ethnoveterinary practices are mainly passed on from older herbalists to the next male heir or protege. During our investigation, a 79-year-old local herbalist accepted a 40-year-old truck driver from the same village as an apprentice in Tuanjie Town. Truck drivers need to use veterinary knowledge to treat livestock in the process of transportation, and first aid experience enables truck drivers to further accumulate veterinary drug knowledge.
The traditional medical knowledge of herbal veterinarians comes from self-study or the learning practices of older generations. They continue accumulating experience in treating diseases and learning about the pharmacological effects of plants in their lifetime, which are passed down from generation to generation. In general, nobility is a requirement of the Bai community to become a healer. Many local Bai healers treat their patients without expecting anything in return.
In the past, localities who were generally poor did not charge for the treatment of other people’s livestock. This spirit of self-sacrifice in diagnosis and treatment is influenced by Buddhism and legendary tales, and the Legend of the Great Black God, the Legend of the King of Medicine, and the glazed Beast are all myths and legends about “self-sacrifice culture” [42, 43]. The “self-sacrifice culture” forms the basis of humanistic care of Bai medicine and is evident throughout the medical history of the Bai people.
Characteristics of Bai Ethnoveterinary medicinal plants in Yunlong County
During the investigation, 90 species of medicinal plants belonging to 51 families and 84 genera were recorded and used to treat livestock diseases. Plants from the Asteraceae family were most widely used by local healers. This may be related to local hot and humid climatic conditions. Plants of the Asteraceae family, one of the largest families of seed plants worldwide, grew readily in local communities. The biomass and population size of Asteraceae e plants are typically extremely large. The Asteraceae medicinal plants are characterized by their heat-clearing and detoxifying, wind dispelling, and dehumidifying antimicrobial properties [44,45,46]. The medicinal plants of Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Ranunculaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Gentianaceae, Lamiaceae, Polygonaceae, and Rosaceae were widely used by the localities, which may be owing to the abundance of wild plant resources in Yunlong County. This is consistent with the results of Yunfang’s investigative study on the diversity of medicinal plant resources and the dominant plant family in Yunlong County [47]. The Asteraceae and Fabaceae plants were used the most, and the results were similar to the survey results of many other research areas in southern China [48, 49].
Among 33 plant families, only one medicinal plant species was eligible as an EMP. Medicinal plants are abundant in Bai village, and local residents collect diverse medicinal species. Most EMPs are collected from wild habitats; they are dug up from near the mountains and planted in their courtyard or in the front and back of the house. In our study, Solanum violaceum Ortega and Phedimus aizoon (L.) ‘t Hart were planted in the courtyard of a farmer’s house, after boiling, and were fed the livestock to clear away heat and detoxify. The life forms of herbs planted in the courtyard are mostly herbs. These are regularly cared for until required during emergencies and also serve to protect endangered medicinal plants [50].
Our investigation indicated that herbal veterinarians usually went to various parts of the county to collect the necessary medicinal materials in August, thus avoiding the busy agricultural season and ensuring optimal plant growth.
Most of the harvested medicinal plants were herbs. This is not only herbs are the most used plant part for medicine, but also because they are easy to procure [49, 51]. The roots and rhizomes were the most commonly used parts for medicines, followed by whole grass, and the result is the same as other ethnic groups (Buyi, Yao, Zhuan, and Maonan) in the choice of medicinal parts [52,53,54,55,56]. However, this traditional utilization method causes significant damage to the biodiversity of the medicinal plants.
The selection of medicinal parts should be modified to ensure sustainable utilization of medicinal plant resources. Therefore, the resource utilization rate should be improved. The Bais have herbal medicine markets in various townships in Yunlong County. Raw herbs are used to prevent and treat various diseases. The local herbal medicinal market enriches the diversity of medicinal plants and is an important place for the exchange and dissemination of Bai medicinal culture [57]. As the education level of the older generation of herbal veterinarians is generally low, their traditional knowledge is derived from previous experiences and daily practice.
Local herbalists are avant-garde and dare to accept and try new things. In our study, we encountered an old herbalist who grafted mistletoe (Viscum coloratum) onto a succulent plant (Euphorbia royleana) to improve plant growth (Fig. 10). He was able to acquire the medicinal plant Viscum coloratum by grafting it on the succulent plant near his home.
The old herbalist grafted mistletoe on the whip of Euphorbia royleana, was taken by Hongli Gao in Dalishu Village, Baofeng Township on July 20, 2022
Livestock breed management and treatment of livestock diseases
Outbreaks of livestock diseases seriously affect the development of aquaculture and the economic income of residents [58, 59]. Livestock breed selection is closely related to disease prevention and economic benefits. According to the interviews, veterinary staff are aware that an improvement in people’s living standards has increased the demand for meat, which the local old breed of beef cattle has been unable to meet. In 1988, local animal husbandry and veterinary management departments began to cross-breed old cattle breeds free of charge to increase the number of beef cattle. The hybrid cattle were strong, disease-resistant, and highly valued. Cross-breeding is now mostly performed by veterinary station staff, which charges 100–300 RMB each time. As older yellow cattle breed are small and rarely get sick, they are more suitable for free breeding in the local mountainous environment; therefore, there is still a large stock in the Yunlong Bai region.
Local veterinarians diagnose livestock diseases based on existing medical knowledge. Common diagnostic methods include observation (e.g., observing the physical manifestations and disease symptoms), listening and smelling (e.g., listening to the sound and breath of animals, sniffing secretions, and excreta), questioning (e.g., asking animal keepers about the appearance or history of the disease), and palpation (e.g., touching or pressing the animal’s body, feeling the pulse, and other viscera), which is similar to traditional Chinese medicine [60, 61]. Tongue examination is not only an important part of traditional Bai medicine but also an important component of disease diagnosis [62].
Red fur is wind-cold, yellow fur indicates excess heat, green fur indicates toxicosis, and white fur indicates collapse. After diagnosing the disease, the local veterinarians begin to prescribe the right medicine for the case. Suitable medicinal plants can be used to prevent and treat diseases owing to their medicinal properties.
Rodgersia sambucifolia is widely used by local veterinarians for the treatment of livestock respiratory diseases owing to the plant’s polyphenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, and volatile oils [63, 64]. Farmers and herbal veterinarians use varied methods to treat their livestock. They often mash Selaginella moellendorffii and feed it to the animals to treat a postpartum abdominal cold for livestock postnatal care. Because of the hot and humid climate in Yunlong County, the Asteraceae medicinal plants (Chrysanthemum indicum L., Taraxacum mongolicum Hand.-Mazz., Aucklandia costus Falc., etc.) are often mashed or boiled and fed to livestock for heat-clearing and detoxification.
In addition to using plants to prevent livestock diseases, local veterinarians have developed unique diagnostic and treatment methods. They use gunpowder to wipe the fur of livestock to treat depilation and apply gasoline to the wounds to ward off maggots.
The donkey turned mad and pulled up the long mane on top of its head and put it in with a needle supplemented with cat incense (wildcat secretion) internal administration can cure. The tripe flatulence was inserted directly with a steel needle, turned down, and taken internally with Rodgersia sambucifolia Hemsl, Actaea cimicifuga L., and other medications after bloodletting and outgassing.
Prospects and challenges of traditional ethnoveterinary knowledge
Although Chinese traditional medical theory is famous worldwide for its application in human health, it is rarely mentioned in countries other than China. Traditional Chinese medicine has been used in veterinary medicine and human medicine practice in China for thousands of years.
In modern Chinese society, herbs used for the treatment of animal diseases or animal feed are believed to contain fewer residues than traditional medicines [65]; moreover, they are believed to reduce bacterial drug resistance and food safety problems caused by modern veterinary drugs [66]. Notices numbers 194 and 246 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Villages of the People’s Republic of China have led to the ban of the addition of antibiotics to veterinary drugs. Conversely, the various standards of traditional Chinese medicine allowing feed additives for both growth promotion and prevention and control have been revised [67, 68].
Therefore, EMPs will gradually be welcomed in the prevention and control of diseases and the health protection of livestock. In remote and poor areas, EMPs are the first choice for local prevention and treatment of livestock diseases. However, under the influence of the mainstream social economy, an increasing number of people choose to work in cities, which hinders the inheritance of the traditional medicine culture and decreases the traditional animal husbandry and the number of animals in rural areas. In this survey, a number of practicing veterinarians said that children in their families would rather sell tea or work in a factory than learn about veterinary medicine.
Currently, most people with knowledge of traditional medicinal plants and their use are over 50 years of age. They mostly engage in agricultural labor or breeding and rely only on their spare time to acquire traditional veterinary medical knowledge. These results threaten the inheritance of EMPs and traditional medical knowledge.
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