EASY TO SWITCH

Low-cost ethnoveterinary medicines can help curb the use of antibiotics in Indian dairy sector and combat the overlooked pandemic of antimicrobial resistance

- DEEPAK BHATI, RAJESHWARI SINHA AND AMIT KHURANA

SOME LIFESAVING solutions are so simple and obvious that they remain hidden in plain sight. This is particularly true for livestock disease treatments that have evolved over generations through experiences of communities, withstood the test of time, are embodied in local culture and practices and yet, the knowledge remains untapped in the absence of standardisation and scientific validation. More often than not, dairy farmers, and some field veterinarians, indiscriminately use antibiotics for treating even common infections in animals.

Researchers with Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found evidence of such rampant misuse and overuse of antibiotics in 2020 and 2021, during consultations with dairy farmers and experts from various sectors such as animal husbandry, food safety, human health. They had observed that most dairy farmers skip the critical withdrawal period-a prescribed number of days during which the treated animal should be excluded from the milk supply chain to allow antibiotic residues to be excreted out of its body. In 2018, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had also found antibiotic residues in milk samples.

Such abuse of antibiotics not only adds to the treatment costs, but also increases the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Interaction between antibiotic residues and pathogens in various environmental matrices (soil and water) and in living organisms can lead to formation and spread of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. A comprehensive global study published in peer-reviewed journal The Lancet in January 2022, estimates that infections caused by these antibiotic-resistant bacteria played a part in the deaths of 4.95 million people in 2019 alone.