Biotherapy

Zootherapy is the use of living animals for medical treatment or as an adjunct to medical diagnosis.

Overview

Zootherapy is the use of living organisms to diagnose, treat or cure disease or disease symptoms. Biotherapy encompasses, among other things, maggot therapy (maggot debridement therapy [MDT], larva therapy), leech therapy (hirudotherapy), honey bee therapy (apitherapy), fish therapy (ichthiotherapy), pet therapy, detection dogs, medical response dogs, phage therapy, and helminthic therapy. The latter, helminthic therapy, is also a class of immunotherapy.

Treatment with animals is animalo- or zootherapy. Biotherapy is direction of natural therapy. Organotherapy is part of biotherapy, then for treatment use the extract's of animals organs. Examples include cerebrolysine, cardium, placenta and other.

External links

• Maggot Therapy Project web site at the University of California, Irvine, list of maggot therapy practitioners
• http://www.bterfoundation.org/ BioTherapeutics Education and Research Foundation
• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1024_031024_maggotmedicine.html
• http://www.helminthictherapy.com/ Site describing helminthic therapy, the use of parasitic intestinal worms, to treat immunological disorders.
• http://autoimmunetherapies.com/ Site providing helminthic therapy based on hookworm or whipworm (human)