An Economical Non-Antibiotic Alternative to Antibiotic Therapy for Subclinical Mastitis in Cows

The economic importance of mastitis and antibiotic resistance is dictating to search non-antibiotic alternatives for the therapy. Trisodium citrate (TSC) being buffer system of the glandular tissue and, vitamin C (Vit. C), zinc and copper being important ingredients required for functioning of immune system fancy chances for a suitable alternative mastitis therapy. The current study was planned to evaluate therapeutic efficacy and cost effectiveness of these ingredients in subclinical mastitis. For this purpose, 40 sub-clinically mastitis cows were randomly divided into 2 equal groups. Group T1 was treated orally with TSC, Vit. C, ZnSo4 and CuSo4, while group T2 was treated with standard antibiotic therapy. Milk pH significantly (P<0.05) differed between the two treatments till day 7th post-initiation of treatment when T1 restored the pH values within normal range earlier than T2. A non-significant (P>0.05) difference was observed in milk pH, fat, lactose, proteins, TS, SNFs, somatic cell counts and restoration of milk yield between the two treatments indicting comparable efficacy. A statistically significant (P<0.05) difference was observed in serum Cu and Zn levels indicating that the supplementation of Cu and Zn led to higher serum values in animals of T1. The use of non-antibiotic oral formulations as mastitis therapy resulted in a net profit of Rs. 457/animal/day. The oral non-antibiotic antibacterial formulation is a therapeutically and economically suitable alternative to rational antibiotic-based therapy to treat subclinical mastitis in dairy cows.