Comparison of the pharmacokinetics of plant-based treatments in milk and plasma of USDA organic dairy cattle with and without mastitis

Organic dairy products are the second largest sector of the organic food market. Organic dairy products come from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified organic dairy cattle that meet USDA organic standards. Organic dairy cattle in the US cannot be treated with antibiotics for mastitis, one of the costliest diseases of dairy cattle, and thus effective alternatives are needed. When any compound (medication or other non-food product) is used in a food producing animal, a withhold time for that compound that meets US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards for food safety must be applied to the animal and its products (like milk). However, there are no US FDA products approved for mastitis that maintain USDA certified organic dairy cattle’s organic status. Thus, we studied the pharmacokinetics of 3 compounds (garlic, thymol and carvacrol) used on organic both healthy and mastitic organic dairy cattle. We also used this information to estimate a milk withhold time using methods consistent with US FDA requirements. For thymol intra-mammary and carvacrol intra-mammary or topical administration, all compounds were partially absorbed into the body from the milk or skin. Thymol and carvacrol are measurable in plasma (at 0.0183 and 0.0202 µg/mL, respectively) after intramammary administration with similar elimination half lives of 1.7 h. Milk concentrations of thymol and carvacrol are much higher at 2.958 and 4.487 µg/mL in healthy cattle, respectively. Concentrations are not significantly different in cows with mastitis as compared to those in healthy cows. Despite these compounds being natural products, they should have a withhold time for milk of at least 24 h after administration. For garlic, levels remained below the limit of detection in milk and plasma and thus no withdrawal time appears to be needed for milk.