bovine actinomycosis

TREATMENT PROTOCOL FOR BOVINE ACTINOMYCOSIS IN A RESOURCE POOR SETTING OF CHOLISTAN DESERT-A CASE STUDY

Published: November 18, 2011

By: Umer Farooq*, Hafiz Abdus Samad, Abdul Qayyum and Haroon R. Chauhdry

Summary

Cholistan desert is one of the driest and hottest areas of Pakistan. Although it has a very uncertain, unpredictable harsh weather with scanty rainfall, yet the livestock rearing is quiet high. The economy and livelihood of nomadic herders depends upon their livestock which, in turn, is at the expense of a fragile ecosystem. The aborigines of Cholistan (‘Rohailay’ in local dialect) are mostly below the margins of poverty. Unaffordability in terms of economics, a swarming network of veterinary assistants and quacks, and lack of appropriate veterinary diagnostic laboratories in the area, leads many mistreated and misdiagnosed cows to the slaughter house. Amongst many other bovine bacterial infectious diseases, Actinomycosis or lumpy jaw in cattle is a significant cause of economic losses in livestock because of widespread occurrence and poor response to the routine clinical treatment. Various treatment protocols documented in the literature for the lumpy jaw have sub-satisfactory responses and are expensive for resource poor settings such as Cholistan. In the present study, three Sahiwal cows with Actinomycosis presented to the authors in different periods of time were subjected to three different recommended treatment protocols viz cow no. 1 was given potassium iodide 7 g/day, orally for ten days, cow no. 2 was given sodium iodide (1g/12kg b.wt.) intravenously as 10% solution twice at interval of 10 days; and cow no. 3 was surgically debrided along with five day antibiotic course of Penbiotic® (Benzyl Penicillin, Procaine Penicillin and Streptomycin) (Nawan Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. Pakistan) injection intramuscularly. In terms of economics and time taken for complete healing, the treatment of the cow no. 3 was least expensive and found to be within the affordance of poor Cholistan dwellers with no untoward consequences. Keywords: Cholistan, Actinomycosis, Penicillin, Streptomycin, Bacteria

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