A comparison on the effect of steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with antibiotic treatment of respiratory diseases in calves

Abstract EN

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of steroidal (flumethasone) and non-steroidal (meloxicam) anti-inflammatory drugs combination with long acting oxytetracycline on clinical and immunological parameters of calves suffering from bovine respiratory disease (BRD).

The study was performed on fifteen newly born calves, 3-5 month old with clinical signs of bronchopneumonia and high rectal temperature in addition to five clinically healthy calves which considered as control group.

The diseased calves were divided randomly into three equal groups which respectively, treated with: Group 1 : long acting oxytetracycline (single I / M injection of 20 mg / kg b.

wt.), Group 2 : oxytetracycline and flumethasone, (single dose of 2.5 mg / calf I / M) Group 3 : oxytetracycline and meloxicam (single I / M injection of 0.5 mg / kg b.

wt.).

Blood and serum samples were collected from all calves just before treatment, 3, 7 and 14 days post treatment for hematological and immunological studies in addition to estimation of some inflammatory markers.

Treatment of calves with the combination of oxytetracycline and meloxicam (Group 3) caused a significantly faster, improvement in the clinical illness index score (CIIS : cough, nasal discharge, dyspnea, depression and anorexia) and a faster normalization of body temperature.

In the blood of the calves which received oxytetracycline and flumethasone (Group 2), leukocytosis, neutrophilia and eosinophilia with concomitant lymphopenia were observed.

Moreover, the calves treated with flumethasone exhibited a decrease in gamma-globulin concentration, lymphocyte transformation rate (LTR), phagocytic % and phagocytic index.

On the other hand, no adverse reactions related to meloxicam were reported during the experimental period and all the studied parameters were returned to their normal levels at the end of the experiment.

These results suggest that the combination of meloxicam with the antibiotic in calves suffering from bovine respiratory disease was superior to the antibiotic alone and also to the combination of the antibiotic with flumethasone.