Honey and Medicinal Plants in the Management of Certain Surgical Bovine Clow Affections

Abstract

Owing to the worldwide spread of bacterial antimicrobial resistance, it is of great concern to search for antimicrobial agents of natural origin. Since the antimicrobial activity of honey was widely documented, the study aimed to evaluate its use comparing with certain medicinal plants extracts as surgical dressing of bovine clow affections. Aqueous extracts of Thymus vulgaris (T. vulgaris), Matricaria chamomilla (M. chamomilla) and Origanum vulgare (O. vulgare) were prepared to be used in vitro and in vivo studies in this work. Clinical aerobic or anaerobic bacterial strains were isolated from some clinical surgical bovine clow affections, and were used to determine the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the prepared extracts against these pathogens.The study concluded that all tested aerobic bacterial strains were inhibited with 10 % of all tested extracts, while the anaerobic strains were inhibited with 10 % of T. vulgaris and 15 % of both O. vulgare and M. chamomilla extracts. According the achieved MICs values, lotions and ointments of the entended medicinal plants were made to be used during the in vivo study as follow: 20 lactating dairy cows suffering from different surgical clow affections were classified to equal four groups (A -D) which were managed with surgical dressing and received: honey (A): T. vulgaris (B), M. chamomilla: (C) and O. vulgare: (D) extracts with their MICs. All cows of groups A & B (no = 10)as well as one cow from group (C) showed complete healing by the day 30 while, none of group (D).The study concluded that with the alternative medical trends, application of honey -as it is -in surgical dressing of bovine digital dermatitis or inter digital necrobacillosis is the most effective valuable economic tool among the four materials studied for its superurity and feasibility followed by the use of T. vulgaris extract 10% in lotion and ointment preparation.