a.a. 2013/2014 Ph.D. Thesis Food Science Mayer Maria, DVM [COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE ON ITALIAN ORGANIC FARMS AND ETHNOVETERINARY AS A POSSIBLE STRATEGY FOR DISEASE TREATMENT] Tutor : Prof. M. Amorena Ph.D. Coordinator: Prof. G.Suzzi Università degli Studi di Teramo - IT Co-Tutor: Dr.Michael Walkenhorst Research Institute for Organic Agriculture (FiBL) - CH COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE ON ITALIAN ORGANIC FARMS AND 1 ETHNOVETERINARY AS A POSSIBLE STRATEGY FOR DISEASE TREATMENT Contents 1 Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 3 2 Sommario ........................................................................................................................................ 4 3 Organic agriculture ......................................................................................................................... 5 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 3.2 Organic agriculture worldwide ............................................................................................... 5 3.3 Organic agriculture in Italy ...................................................................................................... 6 3.4 General principles, recommendations and standard in organic farming animal production 7 3.5 Health and welfare in organic livestock farming .................................................................... 8 4 Alternative and Complementary Veterinary Medicine ................................................................ 10 4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 10 4.2 European and Italian position regarding CAVM ................................................................... 11 4.3 Homeopathy ......................................................................................................................... 11 4.4 Phytotherapy ........................................................................................................................ 12 4.5 Ethnoveterinary .................................................................................................................... 12 5 Research and Education in alternative and complementary medicine ........................................ 14 5.1 Clinical research in alternative and complementary medicine ............................................ 14 5.2 CAM and CAVM education ................................................................................................... 15 6 Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine in Organic Farming: results of a preliminary survey from Italy on veterinaries, veterinary school students and farms attitudes towards. ................................................................................................................................................ 17 6.1 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 18 6.2 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 19 6.3 Materials and methods ......................................................................................................... 20 6.4 Results ................................................................................................................................... 24 6.5 Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 29 6.6 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 31 6.7 Additional documents ........................................................................................................... 32 6.8 References ............................................................................................................................ 39 7 Treatment of organic livestock with medicinal plants: a systematic review of European ethnoveterinary research ..................................................................................................................... 41 7.1 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 42 7.2 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 43 7.3 Materials and methods ......................................................................................................... 44 7.4 Results ................................................................................................................................... 46 7.5 Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 47 7.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 53 7.7 Additional documents ........................................................................................................... 55 Summary 2 7.8 References ............................................................................................................................ 70 8 Swiss ethnoveterinary knowledge in medicinal plants – a within country comparison of Italian speaking with German speaking regions .............................................................................................. 80 9.1 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 81 9.2 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 82 9.3 Materials and methods ......................................................................................................... 84 9.4 Results ................................................................................................................................... 87 9.5 Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 89 9.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 96 9.7 Additional documents ........................................................................................................... 98 9.8 References .......................................................................................................................... 117 10 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 119 Acknowledgement .............................................................................................................................. 121 References .......................................................................................................................................... 122 COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE ON ITALIAN ORGANIC FARMS AND 3 ETHNOVETERINARY AS A POSSIBLE STRATEGY FOR DISEASE TREATMENT 1 Summary The EC Regulation for Organic Farming states that alternatives to chemically synthetized veterinary pharmaceutical products, such as homeopathy and phytotherapy, should be preferentially used to treat organic livestock. In spite of the high importance of organic livestock in Europe, almost no homeopathic or phytotherapeutic product is registered today for livestock. Also, information regarding veterinary homeopathy and phytotherapy is rare. Nevertheless, consumers’ demand for high-quality animal food products with no or limited use of pharmaceuticals produced on a chemical or biotechnological basis is increasing, in spite of global economy slowdown. The aim of this PhD was to educate a competent veterinary researcher, able to address alternative medicine research for organic livestock and therefore to bring a practical contribution to consumers’ demand. During a 3- years project, homeopathy and phytotherapy have been extensively studied. Moreover, three parts of the research project were conducted, (a) an investigation the ‘status-quo’ of the use of CAM in Italian organic farming, (b) a systematic review regarding European ethnoveterinary research and (c) an ethnoveterinary research in Switzerland with a special focus on Italian speaking parts of this country. The outcome of each part of the research project is reported in a scientific manuscript of which one has been published already in a peer reviewed Journal (DOI: 10.1159/000370216). According to the project results it clearly appears (I) the need of CAM for Italian organic farmers, (II) the need of education in CAM for Italian veterinaries and (III) the potential of ethnoveterinary as well as clinical research regarding medicinal plants to treat livestock. CAM in general and in particular medicinal plants offer promising starting points to reduce the input of antimicrobials and other chemical-synthetic medicaments in organic as well as non-organic livestock production, last but not least according to consumers’ expectation. Sommario 4 2 Sommario Il regolamento CEE