Healthy, happy offspring is a joy for all livestock keepers. Like all young animals, calves and piglets have to deal with their environment and the pathogens therein. However, their immune system is often not yet sufficiently developed to do so. This is why young animals in particular may fall ill frequently and severely from a number of different diseases. These often have to be treated using pharmaceuticals in order to maintain animal welfare and performance. A large proportion of antibiotics used in livestock husbandry is administered to calves and piglets. But it is precisely in these enterprises that prevention is better than treatment! The use of medicinal plants can make a valuable contribution to the prevention and treatment of diseases in young livestock. At the same time, it can also be used as a complement to veterinary therapy to assist with recovery. The use of phytotherapy is explicitly stipulated in the Swiss Organic Farming Ordinance. This factsheet presents the traditionally most frequently used and, from a scientific perspective, most promising medicinal plants and explains how they can be applied in practice. It also sets out simple measures that can often help to control pathogens at an early stage and reduce the animals’ susceptibility to disease.
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