Use of phytotherapy as a form of ethnoveterinary medicine in the area of stara planina mountain in Serbia

Abstract

Ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) considers implementation of folk knowledge and skills in animal health care, production and breeding. Also it means understanding of diagnostic, preventive, therapeutic skills and treatments in order to improve public health. EVM has a wide importance in the organic farming and environmental protection. Our studied geographic area is important because it is inhabited with Shops or Torlaks, a special ethnographic group of the South Slavs. Torlaks have developed special animal treatment and methods of animal breeding, particularly in sheep. The aim of this study was to examine the knowledge of ethno veterinary medicine in villagers from the eastern part of Stara planina in the Dimitrovgrad municipality, District of Pirot, to point out the specificity and importance of knowledge in relation to the geographic places and determine the applicability of knowledge in veterinary medicine and organic production. The research included 50 inhabitants from area of villages: Gornji Krivodol, Boljev Dol, Kamenica and Senokos. All villages are in the territory of the municipality of Dimitrovgrad, District of Pirot, Republic of Serbia. Performed methods were: non-structural, semi-structured and field interviews. According to the collected data, 64 different recipes and methods were noted, of which 43 include medicinal plants recipes, and other data include different methods of diagnosis, treatment, prevention and animal nutrition.