NANOPARTICLES: A promising solution for farmers towards bovine mastitis
Livestock has important role in increasing economic development of Pakistan. About 8 million families are dependent and earning > 30 – 40% of their income form livestock.
As source of foreign exchange its impact in total exports is about 3.1% which is much greater in comparison to crop subsector.
Currently in, 2019-20, livestock contributed 60.6 % to agricultural merit and 11.7 % to the overall GDP as compared to 60.5 % and 11.2 % during last year, respectively.
Currently, livestock gross value addition as compared to 2018-19 has risen from PKR 1,430 billion to PKR 1,466 billion showing the increase of 2.5 % during the same tenure in last year.
All over world, in dairy industry, bovine mastitis (inflammation of mammary glands) is most problematic disease affecting milking animals contains major economic impact.
Mastitis as a universal problem is characterized by microbiological, physical and chemical changes in milk while, pathological changes in udder glandular tissues.
Mastitis is considered as most costly and important disease of dairy animals. Common abnormalities in mastitic milk include flakes, abnormal colour, blood and clots.
This disease poses the risk for the transmission of major zoonotic infections (infections transferring from animals to humans) i.e. leptospirosis, streptococcal sore throat, brucellosis and tuberculosis to humans.
Mastitis causes include multiple factors linked with environment, host and pathogen due to which nature and duration of disease varies accordingly.
Primary etiology of disease includes infectious agents i.e. bacteria, viruses and fungi.
Among these, most important are bacteria, divided into two groups: major pathogens (Streptococci,Staphylococcus aureus, Corynebacteriumpyogenes and Coliform) while, minor pathogens (Corynebacteriumbovis and coagulase negative Staphylococci).
Among one hundred various micro-organisms isolated from bovine mastitis, the most important include Staphylococci and gram negative bacteria.
The occurrence of multiple drug resistant Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains poses important threat to public health.
Staphylococcus aureus(S. aureus) is common pathogenic bacteria responsible for upt 40% mastitis cases in dairy animals. Frequently used mastitis treatment includespenicillinantibiotics in dairy animals.
Irrational use of antibiotics over or under dose application results emergence of antibiotics resistance in bacteria. S. aureus as major cause of chronic, sub-clinical and clinical mastitis is challenging to all treatments.
Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) has been declared as threat to animals and humans. The zoonotic potential of MRSA include direct contact with animals andcontaminated environment.
Bovine mastitis cure includes various antibiotics and now a day’s treatment failure is major issue rather than cure.
The excessive use of antibacterial agents in animals is considered major threat for antibiotic resistance spread and also implicating public health.
Multiple drug resistant (MDR) S. aureus infections result in great economic losses and high morbidity as this organism is commonly found in bovine raw milk and is considered major cause of bovine mastitis.
Raw milk and products are reported as major source of S. aureus spread which lead towards dermatitis, pneumonia and septicemia.
Antibiotic resistant pathogens appearance is of great concern and various studies have been preceded considering health issue to advance antibacterial treatment.
Over 70% of bacterial etiologies are resistant to one or more antibiotics used commonly for treatment.
The emerging resistant to antibiotics poses significant threat to public health. Use of antibiotics in future will not be tolerable for curing diseases and development of healthy milk production.
This situation demands relief from antibiotics use, and shiftingtowards alternatives.
Recent advances in nanotechnology, especially the potential to synthesize metal oxide nano-materials of specific shape and size are leading towards new antimicrobial agents development. The particle size affects greatly the functional activities of nanoparticles.
Therefore, nano-materials have attained great attention due to unique chemical, physical and biological properties in different fields including medicine. Development of new nano-materials is the major contribution of nano-technology.
In medical practices, organic and inorganic nano-sized particles like metal oxide nano-particles of iron, zinc and copper are being produced for use in biomedical research.
In recent years, among the most preferred methods of synthesizing nano-particles is Green synthesis (bu using plant sources).
Green synthesis method of nano-particles has several advantages like good stability, simplicity, non-toxic byproducts, less time consumption and large scale synthesis.
The current study provided first report to evaluate the antibacterial activity of green synthesized metal oxide nano-structures against MDR S. aureus.
Ginger and garlic root’s extracts doping played significant role in formation and optimization of metal oxide nanostructures. Overall, in-vitroantibacterial action showed efficiency as ZnO > NiO >CuO> TiO2.
In-vivo trials showed wound healing efficiency in all treated groups with less toxicity compared with control positive in following order as ZnO > NiO >CuO.
This study concluded antibiotic resistance development could be addressed significantly by using green synthesized metal oxide nanostructures as antibiotics alternatives.
The writers are from
Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore-Pakistan
