Abstracts

We concluded that this case study suggests a possible ability of elephants to self-medicate and for this to be explored further for potential use by wildlife-vets. We postulated that as the calf had realistically never come into contact with most of the substances, her self-medicative behavior in respect to the essential oils was most likely innate, perhaps mediated by the olfaction via the vomeronasal organ (before ingesting she exhibited a flehemen-like response). A potential mechanism in selecting Illite clay is harder to elucidate as there are no volatiles in this substance. However, further studies are needed to confirm the link between olfaction and self-medication.

A report can be read at the Sheldrick Trust website HERE 


2. Exploitation of secondary metabolites by animals: A response to homeostatic challenges

Forbey JS (Forbey, Jennifer S.), Harvey AL (Harvey, Alan L.), Huffman MA (Huffman, Michael A.), Provenza FD (Provenza, Fred D.), Sullivan R (Sullivan, Roger), Tasdemir D (Tasdemir, Deniz). INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 314-328 Published: SEP 2009

We propose that the exploitation of the bioactive properties of secondary metabolites (SMs) by animals can provide a "treatment" against various challenges that perturb homeostasis in animals. The unified theoretical framework for the exploitation of SMs by animals is based on a synthesis of research from a wide range of fields and although it is focused on providing generalized predictions for herbivores that exploit SMs of plants, predictions can be applied to understand the exploitation of SMs by many animals. In this review, we argue that the probability of SM exploitation is determined by the relative difference between the cost of a homeostatic challenge and the toxicity of the SM and we provide various predictions that can be made when considering behavior under a homeostatic perspective. The notion that animals experience and respond to costly challenges by exploiting therapeutic SMs provides a relatively novel perspective to explain foraging behavior in herbivores, specifically, and behavior of animals in general. We provide evidence that animals can exploit the biological activity of SMs to mitigate the costs of infection by parasites, enhance reproduction, moderate thermoregulation, avoid predation, and increase alertness. We stress that a better understanding of animal behavior requires that ecologists look beyond their biases that SMs elicit punishment and consider a broader view of avoidance or selection of SMs relative to the homeostatic state. Finally, we explain how understanding exploitation of SMs by animals could be applied to advance practices of animal management and lead to discovery of new drugs.


3. Tannins and self-medication: Implications for sustainable parasite control in herbivores

Lisonbee LD (Lisonbee, Larry D.), Villalba JJ (Villalba, Juan J.), Provenza FD (Provenza, Fred D.), Hall JO (Hall, Jeffery O.) BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES Volume: 82 Issue: 2 Pages: 184-189 Published: OCT 2009

Animals adapt to the variability of the external environment and to their changing internal needs not only by generating homeostatic physiological responses, but also by operating in the external environment. In this study, we determined whether sheep with a gastrointestinal parasite infection increased intake of a low-quality food containing a natural antiparasitic agent (tannins) relative to non-parasitized sheep. Four groups of lambs (n = 8 lambs/group) were assigned to a 2 x 2 factorial design with parasitic burden (P = parasites; NP = no parasites) and the offer of a supplement containing tannins (yes, no) as the main factors. Parasitized lambs ate more of the tannin-containing food than non-parasitized lambs for the first 12 days of the study, when parasite burdens were high, but differences became smaller and disappeared toward the end of the study when parasite burdens decreased. This result suggests the lambs detected the presence of internal parasites or associated symptoms and modified their ingestion of an antiparasitic agent as a function of need. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


4. Self-Medication as Adaptive Plasticity: Increased Ingestion of Plant Toxins by Parasitized Caterpillars

Singer, Michael S.; Mace, Kevi C.; Bernays, Elizabeth A. PLoS One Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: Article No.: e4796 Published: MAR 10 2009

Self-medication is a specific therapeutic behavioral change in response to disease or parasitism. The empirical literature on self-medication has so far focused entirely on identifying cases of self-medication in which particular behaviors are linked to therapeutic outcomes. In this study, we frame self-medication in the broader realm of adaptive plasticity, which provides several testable predictions for verifying self-medication and advancing its conceptual significance. First, self-medication behavior should improve the fitness of animals infected by parasites or pathogens. Second, self-medication behavior in the absence of infection should decrease fitness. Third, infection should induce self-medication behavior. The few rigorous studies of self-medication in non-human animals have not used this theoretical framework and thus have not tested fitness costs of self-medication in the absence of disease or parasitism. Here we use manipulative experiments to test these predictions with the foraging behavior of woolly bear caterpillars (Grammia incorrupta; Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) in response to their lethal endoparasites (tachinid flies). Our experiments show that the ingestion of plant toxins called pyrrolizidine alkaloids improves the survival of parasitized caterpillars by conferring resistance against tachinid flies. Consistent with theoretical prediction, excessive ingestion of these toxins reduces the survival of unparasitized caterpillars. Parasitized caterpillars are more likely than unparasitized caterpillars to specifically ingest large amounts of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. This case challenges the conventional view that self-medication behavior is restricted to animals with advanced cognitive abilities, such as primates, and empowers the science of self-medication by placing it in the domain of adaptive plasticity theory.


5. Four Footed Pharmacists: Indications of Self-Medicating Livestock in Karamoja, Uganda

Grade JT (Grade, J. T.), Tabuti JRS (Tabuti, John R. S.), Van Damme P (Van Damme, Patrick). ECONOMIC BOTANY Volume: 63 Issue: 1 Pages: 29-42 Published: MAR 2009

Following observations of goats' possible self-medication browsing the anti-parasitic plant, Albizia anthelmintica, an ethnobotanical survey was undertaken to examine whether livestock engage in other self-medicating behaviors, and if people also use the same medications. Information was gathered over a five-month period from 147 Karamojong pastoralists and healers using a checklist of questions. There were 124 observations for 50 proposed self-medicating behaviors, primarily eating plants, to treat a total of 35 disease conditions. Of the plant species, 72% were also prepared by informants to treat human or veterinary diseases. Species importance was estimated by four factors: > 3 user citations, informant consensus factor > 0.4, fidelity level > 40% and presence in the local pharmacopoeia. Eight species fulfilled all of these factors, and 12 had at least three. These results provide support for the hypothesis that animals graze specific plants when ill and suggest that people have developed some of their knowledge through animal observation.


6. Cows with Pink Eye
Kath Taylor

We take 20 cows from Skye back to our farm near Elgin on NE coast of Scotland, during the winter for and calving and extra feed. As usual one or two of the first lot began to develop pink eye fairly soon on coming inside and we duly got the vet out. They had to be crated and have antibiotic ointment plastered around the eye which is always stressful for them. So I decided to try oils. It was decided to try bergamot and sandalwood oils, red clay and dried bladderwrack. 10 drops of each oil was added per bucket of water, a handful of bladderack and about a tblspoon of red clay per bucket.

The buckets were filled if needed usually morning and night. The cows just took whatever they needed when they needed. Some buckets would disappear immediately, others would last a day or two. Sometimes it would be one remedy they would chose sometimes another. The empty buckets would often land up in the cattle court so we then made concrete partitions in the tough and filled these with water giving the same amount of remedies, at a much lower concentration as the individual partitions must have held maybe 3 bucketfuls. We then found that one cow had developed quite bad pink eye so we were much more meticulous about filling the partitions as soon as they emptied, again, there didn't seem to be a pattern about which remedy went (however I suspect there was if you monitored it more carefully). Her pink eye cleared up completely within a week.

Now we start the remedies as soon as there is any evidence of watering eyes and just keep using them then until the cows go back to Skye at the end of May (they come the beginning of December). It may sound expensive but I think it would turn out a lot cheaper than getting the vet out even a couple of times, and there are periods when the remedies are only taken up very slowly.

We also noticed another positive effect from the oils, since we started the oils to prevent pink eye we have had no more problems with scouring. The cows have now been 4 years in the same court with no disinfecting although the court is completely emptied for the Summer and we have not had single case of scouring again (in fact we start the oils now if calves arrive before pink eye).

There may well be a pattern to the uptake of oils but we have never monitored it exactly although it would be quite easy to just keep a record of the uptake and the appearance of watery eyes. As the calves get older they will often play with the remedies as well. It would seem that pink eye remains latent within the herd but can be controlled with the oils.

Since starting the oils we have not had to resort to any vet input for pink eye nor for scouring and I think last year I don't think we had the vet out at all.

Pink-eye, or infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis, is an inflammatory bacterial infection of the eye that can cause permanent blindness in severe cases. It is a contagious disease and occurs mainly in young cattle in summer and autumn.

Pinkeye can affect up to 80% of a mob, with affected weaner calves losing up to 10% of their body weight. Although rare, deaths may occur when both eyes are affected, due to starvation, thirst or misadventure