Identifying and understanding self-medication practices and the selections of environmental remedies by individual species can make valuable contribution to the management and prevention of animal diseases.

Facilitated zoopharmacognosy therapies offer a personalised natural healing assistance which promotes the animals’ own healing mechanisms to restore and maintain their own health.

This non-invasive method requires minimal or no human handling, which is an attractive and acceptable method in the health management and care of wildlife rehabilitation.

It is particularly effective in cases of distress, often seen as abnormal or self-destructive behaviour, anxiety or depression, when animals find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings or those which differ substantially from their natural habitat. Often emotional imbalance can manifest into physical problems at a later stage. This therapy may also benefit breeding programmes by providing a calm and more accepting emotional, balanced state and environment for successful captive breeding.

Assisted zoopharmacognosy is a holistic approach that can be used alongside veterinary treatment to rehabilitate sick and injured wild animals. Networking and sharing information and knowledge on voluntary selections and utilisation of wild remedies can also be invaluable to anyone working on the treatment and rehabilitation of the same animal species in other centres around the world.

Zoopharmacognosy can also be effective for livestock management. No matter how well animals are farmed, intensive farming and breeding will inevitably cause a certain amount of stress. This stress can take its toll on herds or individual animals. In addition, vitamin and mineral supplements are often added to animal feeds, and while this is done with careful knowledge, it may not reflect the natural choice of the animal.