Efficacy of an herbal granule as treatment option for neonatal Tibetan Lamb diarrhea under field conditions

Diarrhea is the leading cause of death in neonatal lambs. Herbal remedies are believed to address the conditions. We tested whether an herbal granule had a beneficial efficacy on neonatal lamb diarrhea in this study. The herbal granule was extracted from a combination of Coptis chinensi, Magnolia officinalis, Atractylodes lancea, Prunus mume and Poria cocos with a concentration of 1.0g crude herb/g. Two hundred and sixty-six 3–10 day old lambs within 24h from their first onset of diarrhea were randomly divided into one of two treatment groups (A and B), with animals receiving either herbal granule orally in group A (n=117) or oxytetracycline and pepsin orally in group B (n=109) two times daily for a maximum of 5 days at which time lambs were eligible for exit. Thirty lambs with no clinically visible pathological conditions and with no diarrhea diagnosis were availed as the normal controls (group C) to evaluate the growth performance of lamb herds during the 45-days following the treatment. Although statistically non-significant (P=0.063), more lambs (103/117) recovered from diarrhea in group A than in group B (85/109). We found that lambs treated with the herbal granule experienced reduced days to recovery from diarrhea (3.1±0.8 vs. 3.5±0.6 days, P<0.01), reduced the diarrhea-associated mortality (5.1% vs. 13.8%, P<0.05), and reduced recurrence rate (8.7% vs. 24.4%, P<0.01) during the diarrhea episode compared to the controls in group B. The live body weight of lambs were higher in group A than in group B at days 15 (4.1±0.9 vs. 4.1±1.1 kg, P<0.05), 30 (6.8±1.0 vs. 6.3±1.3kg, P<0.01) and 45 (10.7±1.3 vs. 8.7±1.7kg, P<0.01) following the treatment. Additionally, the live body weight of lambs at days 45 (10.7±1.3kg vs. 10.6±1.2kg, P>0.05) following the treatment were higher in group A than in group C. Herbal granule used in this study might have a beneficial clinical effect under these study circumstances. Thus, herbal granule could represent a potential effective treatment strategy for neonatal lamb diarrhea.