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Bovine mastitis is an important disease in the dairy industry responsi­ble for the welfare and significant economic losses in dairy cows. The treatment of choice for mastitis is the administration of antibiotics. However, this therapeutic choice has some disadvantages including presence of antibiotics residues in the milk, low cure rate as well as rapid increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Therefore, new alternative approaches to antibiotics were investigated by different groups of researchers in order to find an effective approach for bovine mastitis therapy. This review was conducted in order to analyze different publications on usage of essential oils in relation to bovine mastitis. There are many in vitro studies for evaluating the antimicrobial efficacy of essential oils against many mastitis associated pathogens. In addition, numerous of tested essential oils have shown good efficacy with a wide range of minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimal bactericidal concentrations (MBCs). On the other hand, only several in vivo studies have focused on therapeutic effects of essential oils. Moreover, recent studies indicate the possibility of using essential oils in the fight against biofilm which could be promising fight against bovine mastitis since unsuccessful antibiotic treatment can be associated with the presence of biofilms.

Ever since their discovery, antimicrobials have helped in controlling and treating infections in both humans and animals. The control of infectious diseases is endangered by the rise of microorganisms that are resistant to this group of drugs. Limited availability of authorized veterinary drugs leads to prescription of human approved drugs. The aim of our study was to describe metronidazole use patterns and its accordance with scientific literature in Serbia. Results have shown that majority of prescriptions were written to dogs, while 27.1% prescriptions were for cats. Most common general conditions were dental and digestive disorders. Our study shows that metronidazole is available in oral and injectable form, while cats were only treated with injectable formulation. Even though pre­scription of human approved drugs for companion animals is allowed by Law, there is no official record of data on the extent or nature of off-label use in Serbia. Such information is essential for guiding antimicrobial use policy in small animal veterinary practice as well as for assessing the risk of transmission of antimicrobial resistance to humans. Recognizing the importance of antimicrobial resistance and ensuring more judicious use of antibiotics are key elements to any strategy for maintaining the usefulness of antimicrobial drugs in animals and humans.