Due to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the risk it represents to public health, and the possible consequences for animal health and welfare, there is an increasing focus on reducing antimicrobial usage (AMU) in animal husbandry. Therefore, a great interest in developing alternatives to AMU in livestock production is present worldwide. Recently, essential oils (EOs) have gained great attention as promising possibilities for the replacement of antibiotics. The current study aimed to test the potential of using a novel EO-based pharmaceutical formulation (Phyto-Bomat) in bovine mastitis treatment. The antibacterial activity was performed using the microdilution technique. Lactating dairy cows were treated with 15 mL of Phyto-Bomat in the inflamed quarter for 5 consecutive days in order to analyze blood and milk samples for thymol and carvacrol residues using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Antimicrobial activity expressed as the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) indicates that this formulation has the highest activity against Gram-positive strains. The dominant compounds in Phyto-Bomat were thymol and carvacrol, at 12.58 ± 1.23 mg/mL and 23.11 ± 2.31 mg/mL, respectively. The quantification of these two compounds in evaluated biological samples showed that 24 h after administration the concentration of thymol and carvacrol in milk samples was at the same level as before application. On the other hand, thymol and carvacrol were detectable in plasma samples even after 24 h post-treatment, with values ranging from 0.15–0.38 and 0.21–0.66 µg/mL, respectively. The tested formulation showed encouraging results of antibacterial activity against bovine mastitis pathogens, as well as the withdrawal period of dominant compounds, which implies that further testing regarding the bacteriological and clinical cure rates in clinical settings is needed.
Bovine mastitis is an important disease in the dairy industry responsi?ble for the welfare and significant economic losses in dairy cows. The treatment of choice for mastitis is the administration of antibiotics. However, this therapeutic choice has some disadvantages including presence of antibiotics residues in the milk, low cure rate as well as rapid increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Therefore, new alternative approaches to antibiotics were investigated by different groups of researchers in order to find an effective approach for bovine mastitis therapy. This review was conducted in order to analyze different publications on usage of essential oils in relation to bovine mastitis. There are many in vitro studies for evaluating the antimicrobial efficacy of essential oils against many mastitis associated pathogens. In addition, numerous of tested essential oils have shown good efficacy with a wide range of minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimal bactericidal concentrations (MBCs). On the other hand, only several in vivo studies have focused on therapeutic effects of essential oils. Moreover, recent studies indicate the possibility of using essential oils in the fight against biofilm which could be promising fight against bovine mastitis since unsuccessful antibiotic treatment can be associated with the presence of biofilms.
The main subject of the research is the assessment of the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of veterinarians regarding the use of antibiotics (AMU) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through a questionnaire conducted among veterinarians in the northern region of Serbia. A total of 62 respondents completed the questionnaire, which represents a response rate of 44.3%. Male veterinarians are less likely to be in the group of veterinarians with insufficient knowledge (p ˂ 0.05). Veterinarians engaged in mixed practice (small and large animals) (p ˂ 0.001) and veterinarians who have over 100 patients per month (p ˂ 0.005) are also less likely to be in the group with insufficient knowledge of antimicrobial resistance. The proportion of those with insufficient knowledge is growing among veterinarians whose source is the Internet (p ˂ 0.01), while the proportion of those with insufficient knowledge about antimicrobial resistance is declining among veterinarians whose source of information is continuous education (p ˂ 0.05). The majority of the respondents (n = 59, 95.2%) completely agreed that AMR is a very big issue in the global health sector right now. Unfortunately, there are crucial gaps in the knowledge and attitudes of the surveyed participants. They do not appear to be aware of the importance of AMU in veterinary medicine and its influence on overall AMR, or the crucial part that non-prescribed antibiotics have in all of it. Positively, many veterinarians use good practice AMU guidelines in their everyday practice and in line with the global trend of AMU reduction, respondents have also decreased their AMU compared to the previous year.
Heat stress (HS) is one of the greatest problems in contemporary chicken production and it entails significant economic losses. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of early-age thermal conditioning (ETC), vitamin C (Vit C) supplementation, and their combination on the production characteristics and specific quality parameters of the meat of broilers which were exposed to chronic HS in the last two weeks of breeding. Four hundred broilers (Cobb 500) of both sexes were divided into 4 experimental groups. Group C was given Vit C (2 g/L) dissolved in water from day 22 until the end of production. Group T was exposed to ETC for a period of 24 h at the temperature of 38 ± 1 ºC and 40%-60% relative humidity on the fifth day of breeding. Group TC was the combination of the groups T and C, while group K was the control group. The results indicate that ETC, independently or in combination with Vit C, improves the production characteristics in terms of feed conversion reduction (P < 0.05). The examined treatments increase the volume (P < 0.05) of certain parts of the body (carcass, legs and thighs, and back) with regards to total body weight, especially in group TC. Regarding meat quality determined according to pH value and meat color criteria (CIEL*), the best results were also observed in group TC, followed by groups T and C. These results justify the use of Vit C and ETC in summer conditions, when heat stress is expected; however, the best results can be achieved by combining these two methods, thus producing a synergistic effect.
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