MySQL 5.7 C API Developer Guide
my_bool mysql_thread_init(void)
          This function must be called early within each created thread
          to initialize thread-specific variables. However, it may be
          unnecessarily to invoke it explicitly. Calling
          mysql_thread_init() is
          automatically handled
          my_init(), which itself is
          called by mysql_init(),
          mysql_library_init(),
          mysql_server_init(), and
          mysql_connect(). If you invoke
          any of those functions,
          mysql_thread_init() is called
          for you.