Comparative Therapeutic Efficacy of Different Drugs Against Caprine Contagious Agalactia

Abstract

The present work was undertaken with the aim to compare the therapeutic efficacy of different drugs against contagious agalactia in lactating goats. A total of 24 lactating goats having clinical mastitis and positive for Mycoplasma agalactiae were placed randomly into four groups i.e. T1-T4, each group comprised of six mastitic goats and subjected to different therapeutic regimens. Six clinically healthy goats were kept as healthy control. Mycoplasma agalactiae was detected and confirmed as causative agent of contagious agalactia by using polymerase chain reactions which showed a specific 176 bp bands obtained from the DNA amplification of Mycoplasma agalactiae using primers ma-mp 1F and ma-mp 1R. The response of therapeutic study was evaluated on the basis of clinical score card, clinical parameters and polymerase chain reactions on day 0 pretreatment and on days 7 and 14 post treatment. At the time of sampling, the clinical signs in sick animals were of clinical mastitis i.e. swelling of udder, abnormal milk secretion, pain on palpation of the udder and raised clinical parameters. The response of therapeutic study revealed significant improvement in temperature, pulse and respiration in all the treatment groups. On the basis of score card and polymerase chain reactions results on days 7 and 14 post-treatment, goats of the group T4 that was subjected to the treatment with combination of tylosin, tocopherol and sodium selenite showed earliest recovery.