Use and efficacy of homeopathy in prevention and treatment of bovine mastitis

Abstract

Bovine mastitis is an important disease in dairy farming. As alternative therapy to antibiotics, whose use is seen as increasingly critical, farmer try to treat mastitis with homeopathy, for example. The present study examined i) whether homeopathic treatments for bovine mastitis can have positive treatment outcomes, ii) which treatments have been successful and under which conditions, iii) indications for future studies and applications for homeopathy to treat mastitis. 32 studies published to date have been evaluated. Assessment criteria and a rating score of 0 to 5 points were fixed for the appraisal. Healing and prophylaxis of mastitis were the primary focus to highlight the medication success and its framework for suitable mastitis therapy. The top eight studies of this quality ranking were subjected to differentiated evaluation. The selected studies showed a positive treatment outcome of homeopathy. Due to the homeopathic effect and the most used remedies in the selected studies, the medication should be chosen according to the homeopathic drug picture. With homeopathic drugs it was possible to reduce the antibiotic use by up to 75%. Some studies indicated that homeopathy might have a positive long-term effect. Furthermore, the results suggested a high self-healing ability in bovine mastitis.

Keywords

• homeopathy
• dairy cow
• complementary veterinary medicine
• antibiotics
• clinical trials