Antimicrobials bovine mastitis

Potential therapeutic applications of host defense peptides also include the lantibiotic nisin. Indeed, nisin has had an impressive history as a food preservative with FDA approval in 1988 for use in pasteurized, processed cheese spreads. The attractiveness of nisin as a potential therapeutic is also enhanced due to its relative resistance to proteases and broad spectrum Gram-positive antimicrobial activity including multidrug-resistant strains. Biosynexus Inc. has licensed the use of nisin for human clinical applications and Immucell Corp. has licensed the use of Mast Out, an antimastitic nisin-containing product, to Pfizer Animal Health." Indeed, nisin formulations have been used as an active agent in the topical therapies Mast Out and Wipe-Out for bovine mastitis, an inflammatory disorder of the udder that is the most persistent disease in dairy cows." ... 

Nowadays, one stated objective of much of the more imaginative mastitis research is the reduction in our dependence on antibiotics and other exogenous chemicals to control bovine mastitis. Achievement of this goal is nowhere in sight. And so, we are left dependent upon antimicrobial therapy, despite its many limitations, as a major element in control strategy for bovine mastitis. 

An ideal antimicrobial agent for systemic therapy of bovine mastitis should possess the following properties ... 

Prescott, J.F. Baggot, J.D. Principles of antimicrobial drug disposition antimicrobial drug use in bovine mastitis. In Antimicrobial Therapy in Veterinary Medicine, 2nd Ed. Iowa State University Press Ames, Iowa, 1993 37-60, 553-561. 

No milk can be considered hormone free as natural hormones are always present. The question that has been under heated debate since approximately 1995 is whether the bovine somatotropin hormone (BST) injected into cows to increase milk production results in harmful levels of hormone in milk. The use of BST, which is based upon an economic return rather than any health benefit to the animal, raises two important questions what are the health risks to the human consumer, primarily children and what are the effects on the animals It is fairly well accepted that the use of BST increases the incidence of mastitis and therefore the potential for increased residues of antibiotic and antimicrobials in milk. Because of this Canada, Australia, Japan, the U.K., and other European Union countries decided that the health impact on animals was unacceptable and that BST was not to be used in their jurisdictions. Their decisions were not based upon any human health concerns, but strictly on concerns for animal health. 

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