CURING OF SUBCLINICAL MASTITIS BY USING AN ORAL NON-ANTIBIOTIC PREPARATION IN COWS

Mastitis is one of the most significant problems bedeviling the dairy and milk processing industry all over the world. Similarly, in Pakistan, it is the most important disease of the livestock (Latif et al., 2014). Reduced milk production (up to 30%) is one of the major economic impacts of mastitis in dairy animals (Prakash et al., 2009). The economic losses due to subclinical/ asymptomatic mastitis prevail over the impacts of clinical mastitis. As compared to clinical mastitis, the prevalence of subclinical form is 30-40 times higher (Dua, 2005). In addition to causing production losses, mastitis also deteriorates the chemical and physical properties of milk which ultimately leads to poor shelf life of processed milk (Barbano et al., 2006). For the treatment of mastitis, antibiotics are considered as an integral part of any treatment regimen (Deluyker et al., 2005). Despite of extensive use of antibiotic for the treatment of mastitis, therapy often remains unrewarding. In addition, issue of antibiotic resistance is also a big snag in successful treatment of infectious diseases. Keeping the nemesis of antibiotic usage in perspective, a wide range of non-antibiotic agents have now been trialed in mastitis therapy as alternatives of antibiotics in dairy animals (Yousaf, 2009). Mastitis renders alkalinity to milk of affected animals. In healthy animals, milk pH is maintained in a narrow range (6.5 to 6.8) owing to its buffer system with citrate as a major component of this system. Reduction in udder citrate level would result in the clumping of Ca manifested by flakes in milk. It has been revealed that milk citrate level significantly decreases in mastitic milk. Milk pH and citrate levels can be effectively restored by giving trisodium citrate as treatment in mastitis (Dhillon and Singh, 2013; Rai et al., 2013; Gupta et al., 2016). In addition, total oxidant capacity of milk becomes high in mastitis due to release of free radicals, and hence, total antioxidant capacity is reduced. Vitamin C (Vit. C) is a potent water-soluble antioxidant (Sauberlich, 1994). It has been reported that dairy animals suffering from mastitis (clinical or sub clinical) show a significant reduction in serum vitamin C levels (Kleczkowski et al., 2005; Ranjan et al., 2005). Copper being a vital constituent of Super oxide dismutase (SOD) also possesses solid antioxidant properties. Regarding the mammary glands, Zn is very important in maintaining the integrity of streak canal lining composed of keratin. Lower Zn levels lead to low quality milk with higher somatic cell count (SCC) and increased incidence of mastitis (Gaafar et al., 2010). Milk processing industry faces a great problem due to the presence of antibiotic residues in milk because these residues Pak. J. Agri. Sci., Vol. 56(4), 937-941; 2019 ISSN (Print) 0552-9034, ISSN (Online) 2076-0906 DOI: 10.21162/PAKJAS/19.7706 http://www.pakjas.com.pk