Alterations to the bovine bacterial ocular surface microbiome in the context of infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis

• Published in: Animal microbiome 2023-11, Vol.5 (1), p.60-60, Article 60
• Main Authors: Gafen, Hannah B, Liu, Chin-Chi, Ineck, Nikole E, Scully, Clare M, Mironovich, Melanie A, Taylor, Christopher M, Luo, Meng, Leis, Marina L, Scott, Erin M, Carter, Renee T, Hernke, David M, Paul, Narayan C, Lewin, Andrew C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 16S rRNA gene sequencing; Bacterial culture; Bovine; Microbiome; Moraxella bovis; Real-time PCR
• ISSN: 2524-4671; 2524-4671
• DOI: 10.1186/s42523-023-00282-4

Infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK) is a common cause of morbidity in cattle, resulting in significant economic losses. This study aimed to characterize the bovine bacterial ocular surface microbiome (OSM) through conjunctival swab samples from Normal eyes and eyes with naturally acquired, active IBK across populations of cattle using a three-part approach, including bacterial culture, relative abundance (RA, 16 S rRNA gene sequencing), and semi-quantitative random forest modeling (real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)). Conjunctival swab samples were obtained from eyes individually classified as Normal (n = 376) or IBK (n = 228) based on clinical signs. Cattle unaffected by IBK and the unaffected eye in cattle with contralateral IBK were used to obtain Normal eye samples. Moraxella bovis was cultured from similar proportions of IBK (7/228, 3.07%) and Normal eyes (1/159, 0.63%) (p = 0.1481). Moraxella bovoculi was cultured more frequently (p