Comparison of erythromycin and oxytetracycline for the treatment of ovine footrot.

Author(s): Piriz S, Pobel T, Jimenez R, Mateos EM, Martin-Palomino P, Vila P, Vadillo S

Affiliation(s): Unit of Microbiology, Department of Medicine and Animal Health, Veterinary Faculty, University of Extremadura, 10071 Caceres, Spain.

Publication date & source: 2001, Acta Vet Hung., 49(2):131-9.

Publication type: Clinical Trial; Multicenter Study; Randomized Controlled Trial

A microbiological study of 25 cases of ovine footrot was performed. Cultures belonging to Dichelobacter nodosus were isolated in 48% of the sampled animals. The sensitivity of the 99 strict anaerobic bacterial isolates to 5 antibiotics (penicillin G, amoxycillin, spiramycin, erythromycin and oxytetracycline) was studied. The percentage of resistant cultures was in all cases higher than 30%. The efficacy of erythromycin and oxytetracycline in the treatment of ovine footrot was studied. To conduct this test, an intramuscular injection was applied, of one antimicrobial or the other, at the beginning of the treatment. The tolerance of animals to the antimicrobials, the success rate of treatment and the severity of lameness were evaluated. The percentage of animals cured within 15 days was around 75%. In contrast, only 44% improvement was achieved in the lameness. No differences were found between the two antimicrobials in the above indices.