Risks of antibiotic residues in milk following intramammary and intramuscular treatments in dairy sheep

Very few drugs on the market are approved for use in lactating ewes. Veterinarians in the European Union are allowed to prescribe drugs in an off-label manner but are then obligated to assure that residues do not enter the food chain. In case of mastitis treatment in dairy ewes antibiotic preparations designed and authorized for the bovine mammary gland are usually used. Due to inter-species differences, available bovine data cannot be accurately extrapolated for use in the dairy ewe. The objective of the study was therefore to determine appropriate withdrawal periods for ewe’s milk following mastitis treatment with two commercial lactating cow products. For the detection of all components standard agar plate diffusion techniques were used.Regardless of the therapy regime and the product used, residues of antibiotics in milk were detected up to 192 h after the last infusion. These results indicate that the required withholding periods for ewe’s milk are considerably longer than recommended on the label for bovine milk.