Efficiency and costs of integrative medicine in an organic dairy farm.

The EU organic regulation explicitly promotes the use of homeopathy and phytotherapy. The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficiency and the costs of these treatment methods. Data were recorded in an organic dairy farm where the animals are normally treated by classical homeopathy and phytotherapy and, only when indispensable, by allopathy, antiparasitic drugs, surgery and vaccines. We found homeopathy to be the most commonly used treatment. Homeopathy and phytotherapy could be used to treat, with good outcomes, the majority of diseases that occur in a dairy cattle farm. Only sometimes, conventional medicines also had to be used. The costs for homeopathic and phytotherapeutic treatments were very low in comparison with conventional ones, which encourage increased use of homeopathy and phytotherapy in Italian organic farms.