Recent challenges in veterinary pharmacotherapy – could medicinal plants be an option?

One major challenge in veterinary pharmacotherapy is the currently still excessive use of antimicrobials. European countries banned the misuse of antimicrobials as growth promoters, but it is recognized that their remaining widespread application for the prevention and treatment of diseases in farm as well as companion animals is a main driver of antibiotic resistance. A primary concern is that the antimicrobial use in veterinary medicine contributes to reduce efficacies in humans. Cases of transmission of acquired resistances from animals to humans have been described, although the importance and extent of this resistance spread has yet to be quantified. Another concern is the increasing antibiotic resistance detected in zoonotic bacteria, but the potential for transmissions extends to commensals and opportunistic bacteria. These issues are further aggravated by the fact that many antimicrobials used in veterinary medicine are critically important for the management of life-threatening infections in humans. Even in the presence of a bacterial infection, the use of antimicrobials is not always justified. Stewardship programs advocate that the treatment of infections should not necessarily involve antimicrobials in diseases that are self-limiting or can be controlled with symptomatic therapy. In these cases, the application of medicinal plants with anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antiseptic, antimicrobial, antidiarrheal or immune-stimulatory activity may provide a valuable alternative widely accepted by animal owners. To assist veterinary practitioners in the fit-to-purpose use of medicinal plants, we launched a decision support system describing their organoleptic/pharmacologic properties and the applied preparations/doses in domestic animal species. The system also provides botanical characteristics of medicinal plants, their composition and safety profile, falsifications, legal aspects for administrations to food-producing animals and, if applicable, indications on their doping relevance. This decision support system can be accessed under “www.phytoarznei.ch” taking advantage of various user-friendly search functions. The underlying database is being expanded and updated regularly.