Effects of homeopathic and antibiotic mastitis treatment considering mediumterm parameters in an organic dairy herd

Introduction: Homeopathic treatment is a common method against bovine mastitis in organic herds. In a study conducted in a large biodyn farm in Brandenburg (D) considering 261 cases of acute or chronical mastitis, we used four different combinations of homeopathic remedies depending on clinical state of the mastitis (e.g. general findings, pain, swelling or secretion). The remedies were administrated orally. The control group was treated with antibiotics intracisternally for three days at minimum until the cow was clinically cured or defined as therapy failure. While the cure rate was calculated from clinical and laboratory data (bacterial findings and somatic cell count), the further development of the treated cows during the lactation was confirmed using monthly provided somatic cell counts of cows, mastitis and culling data. Results: We found an overall cure rate (complete healing) after administration of homeopathic remedies (H) of 21.7 % compared to 35.8 % in the antibiotically treated control group (A). Though there was an obviously poor treatment success in the homeopathy group, we found no remarkable depression of general udder health in the herd. So it was fair to assume that there must exist positive mediumterm effects of homeopathic remedies. We compared the parameters "Remain in Lactation (RIL)", "Acceptable Cell Count (ACC; < 200.000/ ml)" and analysed the reasons of culling or leaving production by other reasons. We found that there were no differences in RIL (H: 26 % vs. A: 24 %) and ACC (14 % vs. 10 %) in general six month after treatment. The risk of unsuccessful homeopathic treatment during the observing time only was higher in cases of Staph. aureus mastitis and in cows in second lactation. The most important fact was that treated cows which were classified as- subclinical infected 3 weeks after treatment- (n = 35) showed the best relative mediumterm results in the homeopathatic treatment group (ACC: 10 % vs. 0 %; RIL: 29 % vs. 7 %). We conclude that maybe the time frame of 3 weeks after treatment is not suitable to describe the effects of regulatory (homeopathic) mastitis treatment. The mediumterm effects at least six months after treatment are comparable to those after antibiotic administration. We suppose that it is possible to keep the udder health standard in a herd avoiding antibiotics

Homöopathische Konzepte in der Eutergesundheit

In den letzten Jahren wurde der Einsatz von Homöopathie bei Eutererkrankungen in einer Reihe Studien untersucht. Die Autoren geben einen Überblick über die Ergebnisse. Homöopathie kann unter bestimmten Bedingungen vergleichbar erfolgreich wie Allopathie sein und trägt auf jeden Fall deutlich zur Minderung des Antibiotikaeinsatzes bei

Udder health concepts that comply with organic principles - how to reduce therapies?

Both the consumers and the legislators expect products from healthy organic livestock. Consequently, keeping farm animals healthy has the highest priority in veterinary work on organic farms. Different Swiss FiBL projects on bovine mastitis in recent years were aimed at health concepts that comply with organic livestock production principles. This paper summarises some of the work carried out

Blauzunge: Wie vertragen Milchkühe die Impfung?

Dieser Tage startet das BVET mit der diesjährigen Impfkampagne gegen die Blauzungenkrankheit. Wie aber steht es um die Probleme, die Bäuerinnen und Bauern im vergangenen, dem ersten Impfjahr, in ihren Herden beklagten? Das FiBL hat dazu eine Erhebung durchgeführt

Handling the dry-off problem in organic dairy herds by teat sealing or homeopathy com-pared to therapy omission

Avoiding antibiotics is one of the crucial goals in organic dairy herd health management. Thus, a trial with 102 cows (408 quarters) was conducted to com-pare 2 common medical dry-off practices in organic dairying, internal teat sealant (Orbeseal®, Pfizer) and herd specific homeopathic remedies, with an untreated control. Regarding the sub-clinical mastitis protection rate (IPR), the results show no significant benefit for the two treatment groups in general. The homeopathic group had an advantage in the treatment of cows at drying off showing less than 200k cells/ml. The protection OR of these cows was 5.80 (95%-CI 1.36-29.87) compared to control. Teat sealants showed the best results in protection against environmental infections. Only 13% (n=10/80) of the primarily healthy quarters were infected by environmental Streptococci, Enterococci or Coliforms after calving compared to 21% (15/70; n.s.) after homeopathic treatment and 28% in the control group. This is a 3-fold protection chance (3.04 - 95%-CI 1.2-9.0) compared to control. The results indicate that in herds with good udder health with few environmental infections, a treatment at drying off can be omitted, while sub-clinically in-fected cows could be treated by homeopathics. Only in case of increased environmental infection risk, a strategic teat sealant usage is recommended

Treatment of bovine sub-clinical mastitis with homeopathic remedies

Considering the positive results of homeopathic therapy of bovine mastitis, the presented study should evaluate the effects of two standardized homeopathic methods in sub-clinical mastitis using a prospective randomized double-blind placebo control study design. A number of 124 dairy cows from 17 herds with increased somatic cell count were selected and randomly associated to 5 treatment groups. Two groups received a peroral therapy with (a) a homeopathic combination over 5 days and (b) a single treatment with a homeopathic nosode (Tuberculinum). To each treatment group a placebo control group was established with the same treatment frequency. A fifth group served as an untreated control. The bacteriological cure rate after 4 and 8 weeks was 28% and the total cure rate additionally regarding a normalized somatic cell count was 14% and 18%, respectively. There was no significant effect by the remedies at all. The cow somatic cell count over three months after treatment showed no significant difference in the five groups. Standardized homeopathic combinations and Tuberculinum nosodes are not able to control sub-clinical mastitis during lactation. If other factors like age and microbial agent are responsible for the success of homeopathy or if more individualized protocols provide better results has to be answered in further investigations

Tierwohl - Biolandwirte leisten Pionierarbeit

Gewinnbringend gesunde Nahrungsmittel zu produzieren und dabei Tierwohl und -gesundheit gleichermaßen zu berücksichtigen, ist eine große Herausforderung. Der Biolandbau hat sich hier anspruchsvolle Ziele gesetzt und geht damit der konventionellen Landwirtschaft auf einem schwierigen Weg voran

Behandlung des Equinen Sarkoids mit einem Mistelpräparat

Das Equine Sarkoid (ES) ist eine weit verbreitete Erkrankung, die in der Schweiz mehr als 10% der 3-jährigen Pferdepopulation betrifft. Auch in Österreich kommt dieser semimaligne Hauttumor häufig bei Pferd und Esel vor. Obwohl das ES keine lebensbedrohliche Krankheit darstellt, wird es je nach Lokalisation vom Besitzer oft als unästhetisch empfunden

pro-Q-Projekt in der Schweiz. Bestandsbetreuung von Milchviehbetrieben

Mastitis beeinflusst sehr stark die Lebensdauer von Milchkühen und die Wirtschaftlichkeit der Milchviehhaltung. Zur Behandlung und Vorbeugung werden häufig Antibiotika eingesetzt.Verbraucher erwarten jedoch, dass in der Tierhaltung im Bio-Landbau auf diese verzichtet wird. Eine Minimierung des Einsatzes chemisch-synthetischer Arzneimittel ist in der Schweizer wie in der EU-Bio-Verordnung vorgeschrieben. Prävention und Komplementärmedizin sind den herkömmlichen Therapiemethoden, also auch Antibiotika, vorzuziehen. Letztere sind nur im Notfall erlaubt, wenn die anderen Maßnahmen nicht greifen. Der präventive Einsatz von Antibiotika ist verboten. In der Praxis wird dieses Kaskadenmodell nicht auf allen Bio-Betrieben umgesetzt – viele praktizierende Tierärzte sind nicht komplementärmedizinisch ausgebildet und behandeln deshalb in erster Linie nach herkömmlichen Methoden. Viele Landwirte, die lieber homöopathisch behandeln wollen, bilden sich mithilfe von Fachbüchern und Kursen fort und nehmen die Behandlung ihrer Tiere selbst in die Hand. An diesem Konfliktpunkt setzt das pro-Q-Projekt an, das seit Mitte 2003 am Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau (FiBL), Frick, durchgeführt wird.1 Ziel des Projekts ist die Verminderung des Antibiotikaeinsatzes in der Eutergesundheitskontrolle unter Beibehaltung beziehungsweise Verbesserung der Milchqualität durch gesündere Kühe. Dies soll gemeinsam mit Landwirten und Hoftierärzten realisiert werden. Erste Auswertungen der Betriebsentwicklung zeigen, dass meist schon im ersten Jahr leichte Verbesserungen der Eutergesundheitssituation zu verzeichnen sind. Dabei sind bei Betrieben mit schlechter Ausgangslage die Effekte deutlicher als bei denen mit zu Beginn relativ guter Eutergesundheit. Die durchschnittliche Milchleistung stieg größtenteils leicht an, die durchschnittliche Nutzungsdauer verlängerte sich in den meisten Betrieben bereits im ersten Jahr und sank nur in wenigen Betrieben aufgrund von Sanierungsmaßnahmen (Klocke et al., 2005).Vergleicht man diese Ergebnisse mit denen des Vorgängerprojekts, sind deutliche Parallelen in der Entwicklung zu sehen. Überdies werden stärkere Effekte im zweiten Projektjahr erwartet (Notz et al., 2005)

Using Viscum album extracts (ISCADOR) for successful management of neoplasms of the skin in horses and cats in consideration of aspects relevant to human medicine.

Background: Mistletoe extracts (Viscum album extracts, VAE) such as ISCADOR, have been used successfully in human oncology for many years. In veterinary medicine, there have been reports of successful treatment, but scientific data on efficacy are lacking. Two studies were therefore conducted to assess whether VAE can serve as an adjunct to standard treatment in horses and cats. Methods: As part of a placebo-controlled double-blind study (study 1), 53 horses with equine sarcoid (a solitary or multifocal skin tumor) were treated with VAE pini (pine mistletoe) in progressively increasing doses (n=32) or with a sodium chloride solution (n=21). Three times a week for 15 weeks. All horses were observed over a period of 12 months for tumor recurrence and cure. In an observational study (study 2), 44 cats with fibrosarcoma, a very common skin tumor with a high rate of recurrence, were treated postoperatively with 0.1% (0.5ml per dose) oral VAE quercus (oak mistletoe) twice daily, and disease free survival was measured. Results: In study 1, treatment with ISCADOR led to significantly better results than placebo. Improvement was seen in 41% of the cases (placebo 14%), and cure was achieved in 28% of the cases (placebo 14%). In study 2, disease-free survival time in cats treated postoperatively with VAE quercus was 438 days compared with 365 to 475 days for conventional chemotherapies and 120 to 261 days for surgery alone, as seen in literature. Aggressive surgery combined with radiation and chemotherapy led to markedly superior results (661 to 986 days). Conclusion: The study 1 was able to demonstrate, for the first time, the efficacy of VAE compared to placebo control. This study also showed that the effect of VAE apparently extends considerably beyond the treatment period; unexpectedly, only very few recurrences were observed between the end of treatment and the 12th month of observation. The results of the study 2 show that oral administration of mistletoe preparations also yields satisfactory prophylactic effects. The discussion surrounding oral treatment and the question whether it can replace injection treatment must therefore be continued, even in human medicine