Treatment of the retained placenta in dairy cows: Comparison of a systematic antibiosis with an oral administered herbal powder based on traditional Chinese veterinary medicine

Cows affected with retained placenta are at a higher risk of developing puerperal metritis. Herbal remedies bear a high potential to treat postpartum uterine diseases in cows. The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to compare an herbal powder and ceftiofur hydrochloride in the treatment of cows affected with retained placenta and for puerperal metritis prevention. The herbal powder was prepared from a combination of Leonurus artemisia (Laur.) S.Y. Hu F, Angelica sinensis (OLIV.) DIELS (radix), Ligusticum chuanxiong HORT (radix), Sparganiumstoloniferum (Graebn.) Buch.-Ham.exJuz (radix), Curcuma zedoaria (Christm.) ROSC (radix), Cyperu srotundus Linn. (radix), and Glycyrrhiza uralensis FISCH (radix). A total of 157 cows diagnosed with retained placenta were randomly divided into 2 treatment groups. Cows in the herbal group (n=85) were treated with an oral dose of 0.5 g crude herb/kg bw once daily for 1-3 day(s), and cows in the control group (n=72) were treated with ceftiofur hydrochloride (2.2 mg/kg bw, i.m.) twice daily for 3 consecutive days. Seventy-three cows had total expulsion of the placenta within 72 h following initial herbal treatment, yet no cows in the control group expelled the placenta during the same time period, and 50 out of 73 cows achieved total expulsion of the placenta following only one herbal treatment. The median time of retained placenta shedding (20.0 vs. 101.5 h; P<0.01) was shorter in the herbal group than in the control group. The logistic regression analysis indicated that the oral administration of the herbal powder tended to have superior clinical efficacy in metritis prevention compared to the systemic administration of ceftiofur hydrochloride in cows affected with retained placenta (8.2% vs. 11.1%, P=0.057, OR 5.771) within 21 days after parturition. Additionally, fewer cows in the herbal group required additional therapeutic antibiotics compared to the controls (8.2% vs. 26.4%, P=0.003). Evidence from this randomized controlled clinical trial suggested that the herbal powder is a clinically effective treatment for retained placenta and the prevention of puerperal metritis and, thus, might have great potential for the medical management of retained placenta in dairy cows.