Abstract
BackgroundNo clinical trials have been conducted in India on the efficacy of parenteral antibacterials to treat footrot in sheep. In addition, there are no studies worldwide on the efficacy of parenteral antibacterials to treat chronic footrot. Sixty two sheep with acute footrot and 30 sheep with chronic footrot from 7 villages in Kashmir, India were recruited into two separate trials. Sheep with acute footrot were allocated to one of three treatments using stratified random sampling: long acting parenteral oxytetracycline, long acting parenteral enrofloxacin and topical application of potassium permanganate solution (a traditional treatment used by sheep farmers in India). In a quasi pre-post intervention design, sheep with chronic footrot that had not responded to treatment with potassium permanaganate were randomly allocated to treatment with one of the two parenteral antibacterials mentioned above. Sheep with acute footrot were treated on day 0 and those with chronic footrot on days 0, 3, 6 and 9. Sheep were monitored for up to 28 days after treatment. Time to recovery from lameness and initial healing of lesions was assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves, nonparametric log-rank and Wilcoxon sign-rank tests.ResultsThere was significant correlation in recovery from lameness and presence of healing lesions in sheep with acute (r = 0.94) or chronic (r = 0.98) footrot. Sheep with acute footrot which were treated with parenteral antibacterials had a significantly more rapid recovery from lameness and had healing lesions (median = 7 days) compared with those treated with topical potassium permanganate solution (less than 50% recovered in 28 days). The median time to recovery in sheep with chronic footrot treated with either antibacterial was 17 days; this was significantly lower than the median of 75 days lame before treatment with antibacterials. The median time to recovery for both acute and chronic footrot increased as the severity of lesions increased. There was no difference in time to recovery by age, body condition score, duration lame, or presence of pus in the foot within acute and chronically affected sheep.ConclusionsWe conclude that use of parenteral antibacterials to treat sheep lame with either acute or chronic footrot in India is highly effective. This is likely to improve welfare and give economic benefits to the farmers.
Highlights
No clinical trials have been conducted in India on the efficacy of parenteral antibacterials to treat footrot in sheep
There was a very strong positive correlation between recovery from lesions and lameness (r = 0.94, p < 0.05); all sheep recovered from lesions and lameness at the same observation except three sheep with acute footrot, which were lame for one week after recovery from lesions
There was no significant difference in time to recovery by the type of antibacterial used with sheep recovering in a median time of 7 days with both antibacterials
Summary
No clinical trials have been conducted in India on the efficacy of parenteral antibacterials to treat footrot in sheep. There are no studies worldwide on the efficacy of parenteral antibacterials to treat chronic footrot. Sixty two sheep with acute footrot and 30 sheep with chronic footrot from 7 villages in Kashmir, India were recruited into two separate trials. Footrot lesions are acute when sheep have been lame for a short period of time with the above characteristic clinical signs but the foot has no chronic inflammation. Footrot lesions are chronic when in addition to the characteristic clinical signs, the hoof horn is thickened, mis-shapen or overgrown with some degree of under-running [3,4]. Sheep with chronic lesions have been reported to be lame for several weeks/months [3]
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