• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.397-403
• /
• 1999

This study was designed to examine the clincotherapeutic effect of natural honeybee (Apis mellifera) venom in sows with mastitis, metritis and agalactia (MMA) syndrome. Sows with MMA syndrome after parturition were assigned to treated and nontreated control groups. In treated group, 22 sows were bee acupunctured once a day for 3 consecutive days. Acupuncture points of Jiao-chao (GV-1, at the indentation between the base of tail and the anus), Yang-ming (ST-18, outside at the base of teat) and Hai-men (ST-25, about 1 cm lateral to the umbilicus) were stung by the natural honeybees. In control group, 20 sows were intramuscularly injected with a standard dosage of penicillin G (400,000 IU/kg of body weight) once a day for 3 consecutive days. At post-treatment, 85.0% of control sows and 90.9% of sows in treated group recovered from MMA syndrome. Bee acupuncture therapy didn't show any side effects such as allergy, intoxication, hemorrhage, or infection. It might be concluded that apitherapy was effective in controlling of sows with MMA syndrome.