Non-antibiotic treatment for mastitis being pioneered by Galway company

A GALWAY based company has a new non-antibiotic product in the pipeline that could represent a major breakthrough in the treatment of bovine mastitis –virtually eliminating milk discards – either during or after the treatment period of two to three days.

Westway Health are a start-up company based in the NUI Galway campus who have developed a suite of non-antibiotic technologies effective at killing all micro-organisms.

The idea largely stems from almost ten years of research from the laboratory of Professor Vincent O’Flaherty, Head of Microbiology at the School of Natural Sciences at NUI Galway.

CEO of Westway Health, Dr. Ruairi Fiel believes there is an urgent need for novel, effective treatments against bacteria as the lack of effectiveness of antibiotics and the growing number of bacteria becoming resistant such as MRSA is a major concern.

“The WHO has described this as ‘increasingly serious threat to global public health. These technologies have a range of applications in human health, animal health and for environmental sterilisation, in eliminating and eradicating micro-organisms, such as bacteria, yeast and fungi,” said Dr. Friel.

The lead product in the pipeline of Westway Health’s technologies is for the treatment of bovine mastitis through PanaMast LC that boasts zero milk discard during or after the period of treatment, which is a short 2-3 days. It is administered into the teats in the same way as the conventional mastitis tubes.

Bovine mastitis is a potentially fatal mammary gland infection, causing an inflammatory reaction of the udder tissue. Milk-secreting tissue and various ducts throughout the mammary gland are damaged due to toxins released by the bacteria.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.