Homeopathic Treatment with a Complex of Cina9 CH and Colocynthis CH in Horses Naturally Infected with Intestinal Strongyles

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of homeopathic and allopathic treatments ongastrointestinalparasites in horses.Eighteen clinically healthy and regularly trained Standardbred horses were used with the informed consent of the owners.The horses were randomly divided into 3 equally groups: Group A was treated with ivermectin, Group B received daily treatment with an homeopathic combination of Cina 9CH and Colocynthis 9CH, and Group C (Control Group) received treatment with placebo.Directly after the first faecal sampling, the horses were treated with anthelmintic drugs (day 0).All horses were observed daily to record for any clinical signs of side-effects (e.g., sweating, mydriasis, colics) caused by the products.Body Condition Score (BCS) measurement was performed on horses before (d0) and after the end of experimental period (d35).The collection of faecal samples was carried out from each animal before (d0) and after 3 (d3), 7 (d7), 10 (d10), 13 (d13), 16(d16), 20 (d20), 27 (d27), and 35 (d35) days the start of experimental period.Fecal egg count reduction (FECR) tests were performed to evaluate the efficacy of allopathic and homeopathic treatment.Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to determine significant effects of treatment and time on BCS values.Differences on efficacy of treatment were found among groups.In particular, the efficacy of ivermectin on Group A based on FECR was of 98.8%.Egg count reduction after homeopathic treatment were lower than 10%,although the parasite eggs showed altered morphological aspect with thinned and coerced walls.Whereas, the Group C had no reduction in FECR and parasite eggs showed no morphological alterations.A statistically significant effect of time was found on the BCS values in group A (P<0.05) and B (P<0.001).Moreover, Groups B showed higher BCS values respect to Group A and Group C. The homeopathic treatment evaluated in the present study did not prove effective in controlling gastrointestinal nematodes in the conditions that it was tested as demonstrated by the lack of FECR.