Homeopathy is no cure for mastitis
If you think that antibiotic use is safe and modern testing ensures there is no residue in the milk, this option is for you.
New Zealand has the third lowest agricultural antibiotic use in the world at 20 milligrams per kilogram. New Zealand veterinarians are very strict in this regard. As a comparison, the United States use 180mg/kg and I have no idea what they are doing in Cyprus but their rate is 425mg/kg.
Organic certification does not allow the use of antibiotics. So organic farmers rely on homeopathic remedies to treat mastitis. If these remedies don’t work, organic farmers will treat the cow with antibiotics. But the cow will lose her organic status for a year and she has to leave the farm. In short, that means organic cows with mastitis are treated with antibiotics and in many cases culled.
I have been around the traps for a while now and I know how the sausage is made. It is at great risk to my personal brand that I say this but homeopathic remedies just don’t work.
This will make some people very angry but the research is clear. A Canadian study reviewed all data from 1970 and concluded: ‘‘No evidence-based recommendations could be given for the use of an alternative or non-antimicrobial conventional treatment for clinical mastitis’’. They went on: ‘‘We concluded that homeopathic treatments are not efficient for management of clinical mastitis’’. Another study found: ‘‘Virtually no data are available that support the clinical efficacy of any of the alternative veterinary products used for treatment or prevention of mastitis’’.
I am open to correction if anyone has alternative facts.
Culling mastitis cows may not be such a bad thing though – unless you are a cow. But it means farmers do not breed from cows that contract mastitis and over time the herd should be more resistant to mastitis.
But the data does not support this either and organic herds have roughly the same mastitis rates as conventional herds.
If you think antibiotic use is not safe, the organic approach is for you. But the trade-off is that more cows will take a one-way truck ride. But again the data does not support that: Culling rates for both conventional and organic farms are about the same.
While organic and conventional farms approach mastitis differently, infection rates are similar in both systems and cull rates are about the same too.
The data suggests they are more alike than they may think.