TY - JOUR
T1 - Barcoding and traditional health practitioner perspectives are informative to monitor and conserve frogs and reptiles traded for traditional medicine in urban South Africa
AU - Phaka, Fortunate M.
AU - Netherlands, Edward C.
AU - Van Steenberge, Maarten
AU - Verheyen, Erik
AU - Sonet, Gontran
AU - Hugé, Jean
AU - du Preez, Louis H.
AU - Vanhove, Maarten P.M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Molecular Ecology Resources published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2023/10/16
Y1 - 2023/10/16
N2 - Previous literature suggests that Indigenous cultural practices, specifically traditional medicine, are commonplace among urban communities contrary to the general conception that such practices are restricted to rural societies. We reviewed previous literature for records of herptiles (frog and reptile species) sold by traditional health practitioners in urban South Africa, then used visual confirmation surveys, DNA barcoding and folk taxonomy to identify the herptile species that were on sale. Additionally, we interviewed 11 IsiZulu and SePedi speaking traditional health practitioners to document details of the collection and pricing of herptile specimens along with the practitioners' views of current conservation measures for traditional medicine markets. The 34 herptile species recorded in previous literature on traditional medicine markets included endangered and non-native species. Spectrophotometry measurements of the DNA we extracted from the tissue of herptiles used in traditional medicine were an unreliable predictor of whether those extractions would be suitable for further experimental work. From our initial set of 111 tissue samples, 81 sequencing reactions were successful and 55 of those sequences had species-level matches to COI reference sequences on the NCBI GenBank and/or BOLD databases. Molecular identification revealed that traditional health practitioners correctly labelled 77% of the samples that we successfully identified with DNA barcoding in this study. Our mixed methodology approach is useful for conservation planning as it updates knowledge of animal use in Indigenous remedies and can accurately identify species of high conservation priority. Furthermore, this study highlights the possibility of collaborative conservation planning with traditional health practitioners.
AB - Previous literature suggests that Indigenous cultural practices, specifically traditional medicine, are commonplace among urban communities contrary to the general conception that such practices are restricted to rural societies. We reviewed previous literature for records of herptiles (frog and reptile species) sold by traditional health practitioners in urban South Africa, then used visual confirmation surveys, DNA barcoding and folk taxonomy to identify the herptile species that were on sale. Additionally, we interviewed 11 IsiZulu and SePedi speaking traditional health practitioners to document details of the collection and pricing of herptile specimens along with the practitioners' views of current conservation measures for traditional medicine markets. The 34 herptile species recorded in previous literature on traditional medicine markets included endangered and non-native species. Spectrophotometry measurements of the DNA we extracted from the tissue of herptiles used in traditional medicine were an unreliable predictor of whether those extractions would be suitable for further experimental work. From our initial set of 111 tissue samples, 81 sequencing reactions were successful and 55 of those sequences had species-level matches to COI reference sequences on the NCBI GenBank and/or BOLD databases. Molecular identification revealed that traditional health practitioners correctly labelled 77% of the samples that we successfully identified with DNA barcoding in this study. Our mixed methodology approach is useful for conservation planning as it updates knowledge of animal use in Indigenous remedies and can accurately identify species of high conservation priority. Furthermore, this study highlights the possibility of collaborative conservation planning with traditional health practitioners.
KW - bio-cultural diversity
KW - Ethno-herpetology
KW - Indigenous knowledge systems
KW - mixed-method analyses
KW - zootherapy
U2 - 10.1111/1755-0998.13873
DO - 10.1111/1755-0998.13873
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85174293902
SN - 1755-098X
JO - Molecular Ecology Resources
JF - Molecular Ecology Resources
ER -