While mastitis is the most frequent disease condition in dairy cattle, the most common treatment for it -antibiotics- aren’t used in organic milk production. Mastitis affects animal health, longevity in the herd, and the production of quality milk. Although non-antibiotic products for mastitis have been marketed, limited data is available regarding the safety and efficacy of these products.
Associate Professor and veterinarian at Michigan State University, Bo Norby, received an NCR-SARE Research and Education grant to assess the efficacy and safety of two commonly used and organically approved therapies, guava and honey, for use in treating bovine mastitis.
Norby’s in-vitro work will establish antimicrobial activity of these compounds against common mastitis pathogens. Once candidate formulations of honey and/or guava are identified, limited intra mammary infusions will be used in healthy cows to evaluate safety and pharmacokinetics (how the compounds move through the body). Finally, on farm field trials on as many as 80 cows on organic and conventional dairy farms will assess the efficacy of candidate formulations for naturally occurring mastitis.
View a presentation on this project, from the 2014 Farmers Forum, through NCR-SARE's YouTube playlist. Visit www.youtube.com/NCRSAREvideo for this and other videos.
Want more information? See the related SARE grant: