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Animals have been used as medicinal resources for the treatment and relieve of a myriad of illnesses and diseases in practically every human culture. Although considered by many as superstition, the pertinence of traditional medicine based on animals cannot be denied since they have been methodically tested by pharmaceutical companies as sources of drugs to the modern medical science. The phenomenon of zootherapy represents a strong evidence of the medicinal use of animal resources. Indeed, drug companies and agribusiness firms have been evaluating animals for decades without paying anything to the countries from where these genetic resources are found. The use of animals' body parts as folk medicines is relevant because it implies additional pressure over critical wild populations. It is argued that many animal species have been overexploited as sources of medicines for the traditional trade. Additionally, animal populations have become depleted or endangered as a result of their use as experimental subjects or animal models. Research on zootherapy should be compatible with the welfare of the medicinal animals, and the use of their by-products should be done in a sustainable way. It is discussed that sustainability is now required as the guiding principle for biological conservation.

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This paper deals with the use of 180 animal species as medicinal resources in the state of Bahia, Northeastern Brazil. Data, which come from field works carried out in different indigenous, traditional, rural and urban communities within Bahia State, were gathered through the compilation of information available in scientific articles, monographs, theses, reports and presented papers. The animal-based folk medicines come from millipedes (0.5%), annelids (1.0%), amphibians (1.0%), arachnids (1.0%), echinoderms (1.5%), crustaceans (4.0%), molluscs (6.0%), reptiles (12.0%), birds (13.0%), fishes (17.0%), mammals (20.0%) and insects (23.0%). These bioresources provide about 300 raw materials, which are turned into medicines and prescribed to treat a wide range of locally diagnosed ailments. The result shows how important this ethnozoological phenomenon is, and indicates that traditional knowledge on zootherapy is to be seriously studied in order to lead to the discovery of new sources of drugs. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.