Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

Moraxella bovis is the leading cause of pink eye in cattle (Peek, 2017). Organic beef farmers cannot use antibiotics or they will lose their organic certification (“Pink Eye in Organic Cattle”, 2020). This project investigated natural treatments (honey, hydrogen peroxide, and silver nitrate) as alternatives for organic farmers. These were chosen because of their previous benefits in treating open wound injuries and their antibacterial properties (Mandal and Mandal, 2011). Moraxella catarrhalis, a BSL-1 bacterium that is similar to Moraxella bovis, was cultivated and lawns of growth were created on BHI agar plates, then the treatments were impregnated into discs and added to the lawn of growth. Then every 24 hours the zone of inhibition was measured. Penicillin-impregnated disks, water with blank discs, and just blank discs served as control treatments. All of the treatment options produced a zone of inhibition. Hydrogen peroxide produced the largest zones while honey produced the smallest. All natural treatments were more effective than water. Both dilutions of hydrogen peroxide were more effective than penicillin. There was a statistically significant difference between the average size of the zones of inhibition created by each group on the last day of measurement (p- value of 3.54x10⁻¹⁶).

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