Homoeopathica April 2000
A clinical trial was conducted on a Mexican dairy farm, with 26 animals divided into two groups of 13 each. One group received homœopathic treatment, the other placebo. Monthly milk production was carefully recorded for each animal, as were the results of the California Mastitis Test (CMT) performed on each quarter of the udder. The proportion of affected quarters according to CMT was 32% in the treated group, and 68% in the control group.
Average milk production in the treated group did not differ significantly from that of the control group.
The study confirms previous observations of the benefit the homœopathic method can provide in disease control in animal populations.
A homœopathic combination consisting of: Phytolacca decandra 200c (50%), Phosphorus 200c (30%) and Conium maculatum 200c (20%) was administered to the treated group. Over a total of 30 days each animal in the group received oral doses of not less than 50ml starting with a dose every 48 hours for the first 2 weeks, after which they received 2 doses in one week and finally a single dose in the last week.
After a month of treatment and placebo, the CMT was repeated, quarter by quarter, and milk production recorded for each animal in both groups. The CMT results were converted to a numerical equivalence scale to establish the average reaction of each functional quarter per cow, obtaining a value in the continuous scale for each animal in both groups.
Results and discussion
Of all the animals included in the experiment, 51 functional quarters were considered in the treated group, and 52 quarters in the control group (there was one blind quarter in the first group).
The control group was exposed to the risk factor, not having received preventive (homœopathic) treatment. Of the functional quarters in the control group, 37 had a positive reaction to the test, against 17 quarters in the treated animals (Table 1)
Perhaps results would have been better if the homœopathic combination included a medicine for decreased milk production, such as Lac canium or Urtica urens.
It is important to mention that the pluralist homœopathic approach used in this study meets the need to cover a great variety of signs of the disease and of environmental variables related to the problem. It was not practicable to individualise either the patient or the homœopathic prescription.
The trial reported in this paper establishes a possible approach to animal health problems and care that differs from the traditional. From a population standpoint, this is supported by the results concerning the prevalence of subclinical mastitis by quarters. Such experiments must continue, with single and complementary homœopathic medicines, to define the strategies that will best control mastitis in dairy herds, ultimately evolving a unicist approach. Future studies should consider medicines that correct low milk production. On the other hand comparative studies are recommended that include bacteriological parameters, in order to justify the homœopathic approach to the control of this disease from the public health point of view.
TABLE 1. Contingency table including clinically affected quarters
Control group | Treated group | Total | |
Subclinical mastitis positive |
37 | 17 | 54 |
negative | 15 | 34 | 49 |
Total | 52 | 51 | 103 |
This trial, by Roberto Searcy-Bernal and two others, was published in the British Homœopathic Journal of April 1995. It is a very abridged version printed here.