Comparative Study of the Healing Process of Disbudding Wounds in Calves Using Bepanthene^® or an Antibiotic Spray

The process of disbudding female calves is a common procedure in many dairy farms, avoiding injuries caused by horns and reducing feed bunk space requirements. The most common method for disbudding calves is by the use of a cautery iron, responsible for destroying the horn-generating tissue. After the procedure, wounds may be treated with an antibiotic-based spray. Nowadays, antimicrobial resistance is a worldwide concern in both human and veterinary medicine, highlighting the need to invest in the monitoring of antimicrobial use and in the development of alternative treatments in favour of One Health. The goal of this study is to promote a reduction in the use of antibiotics in farm animals by investigating an alternative treatment for disbudding wounds. Bepanthene^® (dexpanthenol, a derivative of pantothenic acid, a component of the B vitamin complex) is a plausible option, since it is widely used in human medicine for the treatment of skin irritations and burns. The comparison of the healing process of disbudding wounds treated with Bepanthene^® or a chlortetracycline-based spray was achieved through the presentation of a randomly-ordered sequence of images of the lesions to a panel of convenience-selected and blinded-to-treatment evaluators, composed of seven veterinarian practitioners, five veterinary medicine students, and five human medical field nurses. In order to classify the lesions, the panel applied an adapted format of a validated healing scale (Bates–Jensen Wound Assessment Tool), incorporating seven parameters of evaluation, culminating in the values used for statistical analyses. In the practitioners’ evaluation, a statistically significant effect for the factors of time and treatment in favour of Bepanthene^® was found for the parameters “Edges”, “Necrotic Tissue Type”, and “Skin Colour Surrounding Wound”, indicating that Bepanthene^® is superior to the spray when considering these parameters of healing. The assessment by the veterinary students showed a significant effect for the factors of time and treatment for the parameters “Necrotic Tissue Type”, in favour of the Bepanthene^®, and “Granulation Tissue”, in favour of the antibiotic spray, demonstrating no clear benefit for either treatment. Lastly, the evaluation performed by nurses showed a significant effect for the factors of time and treatment, in favour of the Bepanthene^®, for the parameters “Necrotic Tissue Type” and “Skin Colour Surrounding Wound”, leading to the conclusion that Bepanthene^® is associated with better and faster healing when compared to the spray. Overall, these findings lead us to suggest that Bepanthene^® presents a better healing index compared to a chlortetracycline-based spray, allowing it to be safely used as a substitute to an antimicrobial agent.