Autohemotherapy: An effective treatment regimen for teat warts in cattle under Leh Ladakh conditions

Abstract

Leh-Ladakh is a cold arid region of Jammu and Kashmir UT of India with an average altitude of 3500 meters. The climatic conditions are very harsh in terms of low rainfall, low humidity and temperature variation from -40 °C to +35 °C. Ladakh remains cut off from the rest of the world by road for most of winter months. Animal clinical camps were organized by Krishi Vigyan Kendra Leh in the Thiksey and Rambirpur villages of Leh. Four (4) animal clinical camps were organized in these villages. Eleven (11) cases of cows with teat warts were presented in these camps. Due to local customs, many farmers do not prefer the use of allopathic medicines, besides the paucity of medicines in most of villages; autohemotherapy was performed on these animals. 15- 20 mL of blood was removed at a time from these animals and then 10 mL of this blood was injected deep intramuscularly in the gluteal region and 5-10 mL of blood was given subcutaneously in the lateral neck region. The practice was followed once a week for four weeks. Nine out of eleven cows responded well to the treatment. The teat warts began to regress from the third week and most of the warts either degenerated or fell off from the animal by six to eight weeks.