Diarrhoea

“Diarrhoea is a leading causing of deaths in animal calves. This affects the income of farmers,” said Singh.

According to the research published by IVRI in its annual report, the team collected a total of 199 diarrhoea-causing bacterial strains from different sources. The samples were tested in batches with 25 conventional antibiotics and eight herbal medicinal oils.

“60% of the strains were found resistant towards conventional antibiotics including imipenem, gentamicin and colistin. However, medicinal oils hampered the growth of almost all the strains to varied levels.” Singh said.

He said the most effective was Ajwain essential oil (AEO), extracted from Ajwain, which hindered the growth of almost all the strains, followed by cinnamon essential oil (from cinnamon), which was effective against 96% of the strains. This was followed by the oil of the holy basil (tulsi), which was found to be effective in 92.5% cases. Thyme essential oil (effective in 87.1%), zanthoxylum ricata oil (27.1%) patchauli essential oil (6.6%) were also tested in the study.

In the absence of any established research procedures, the team used one ml of every essential oil. The team has now proposed a dedicated study regarding the amount of essential oils that can be administered to animals to cure ailments without any marked side effects.

“For every medicine we fix the amount that can be used without inducing toxicity to the animal. But due to lack of research, this data is not available for herbal oils. We have now proposed a dedicated research regarding this,” Singh said.

Meanwhile, IVRI experts suggest a ‘phanki’ (5-10 gm) of Ajwain to be administered twice a day to animals suffering from chronic diarrhoea. This dose can be given to the sick animals along with their usual medicines.