THE ANTIINFLAMMATORY DRUGS PHENYLBUTAZONE AND DIPYRONE IN THE TREATMENT OF FIELD CASES OF BOVINE MASTITIS

The efficacy of phenylbutazone vs. dipyrone for the treatment of acute clinical mastitis were compared in a clinical trial. All cows were tr eated with 20g sulfadiazine and 4g trimethoprim i.m. upon diagnosis an d half dosage once daily thereafter. In addition, the NSAIDs treated c ows received once daily either 4g phenylbutazone or 20g dipyrone i.m. for the duration of the antimicrobial therapy. In all treatment groups the major causative organisms were coliforms. Recovery rates for the controls, the phenylbutazone and dipyrone treatment groups were 81.8%, 89.4% and 86.6%, respectively Recovery was evaluated by the logistic regression analysis, the odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence int erval (CI) of treatment success for phenylbutazone and dipyrone treatm ents relative to the control treatment were calculated. Odds ratio of recovery was high for phenylbutazone (OR=2.42; CI=0.98-5.96; P=0.054) as well as for dipyrone (OR=1.71; CI=0.98-3.00; P=0.060), demonstratin g a strong trend towards improved recovery in NSAID groups. The odds o f treatment failure for the phenylbutazone group relative to the dipyr one group was 0.71 with 95% CI of 0.28-1.78. Clearly no significant di fference could be demonstrated between phenylbutazone and dipyrone in this field trial.