Comparative evaluation of different therapeutic protocols for contagious caprine pleuropneumonia in Himalayan Pashmina goats

Therapeutic management of contagious caprine pleuroneumonia (CCPP) involves mostly the use of oxytetracycline followed by enrofloxacin and rarely tylosin. In many parts of the world including India, the former antibiotics are commonly available than the latter. Therefore, prolonged use of the same leads to the development of antibiotic resistance and decreased efficacy of drug. Besides, inflammatory and allergic pathogenesis of CCPP envisages combination therapy. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of the combination therapy using different antibiotics (oxytetracycyline @ 10: group I, enrofloxacin @ 5 group II, and tylosin: group III, @ 10 mg/kg body weight), along with anti-inflammatory (meloxicam @ 0.5 mg/kg) and anti-allergic (pheneramine maleate @ 1.0 mg/kg) drugs. These drugs were given intramuscularly at the interval of 48 h for four times in three test groups (n=10) of Pashmina goats, viz. groups I, II, and III, respectively, affected with CCPP. Group IV (n=10) was kept as healthy control when group V (n=10) treated with oxytetracycline @ 10 mg/kg alone was used as positive control. Clinical signs, clinical parameters, pro-inflammatory cytokine (tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha)), and oxidative stress indices (total oxidant status (TOS), total antioxidant status (TAS)) were evaluated at hours 0, 48, 96, and 144 of experimental trial. Tylosin-based combination therapy resulted in a rapid and favorable recovery resulting in restoration of normal body temperature (102.46 +/- 0.31 degrees F), respiration rate (16.30 +/- 0.79 per minute), and heart rate (89.50 +/- 2.63 per minute) compared to the oxytetracycline (102.95 +/- 0.13, 21.30 +/- 1.12, 86.00 +/- 2.33, respectively) and enrofloxacin (102.97 +/- 0.19, 21.00 +/- 1.25, 90.00 +/- 2.58, respectively) treated groups. By hour 144, all the groups showed restoration of clinical parameters of normal health and diminishing signs of CCPP, viz. fever, dyspnea, coughing, nasal discharge, weakness, and pleurodynia. Significant (P <= 0.05) decrease in levels of TNF-alpha and non-significant (P>0.05) decrease in levels of TOS and an increase in levels of TAS were noted from hour 0 to 144 in all the test groups. Within the groups, no significant (P>0.05) change was noted in TNF-alpha, TOS, and TAS levels; however, TNF-alpha levels were comparatively lower in group III. Hematological parameters did not differ significantly (P>0.05). From these findings, it can be inferred that tylosin-based combination therapy is relatively better for early, rapid, and safe recovery besides minimizing inflammatory and oxidative cascade in CCPP affected Pashmina goats compared to oxytetracycline- and enrofloxacin-based therapies.