Pinkeye was first identified in the U.S. in the 1890s. Face flies, sometimes thought to cause it, entered this country from Nova Scotia in 1952.
“M. bovis tends to be just in the conjunctiva in the lubricating fluid. Unless there is trauma to the eye, the bacteria can’t bind to the cornea,” says Annette O’Connor, DVM. Some of the things suspected of causing trauma include high levels of ultraviolet light, tall grasses that cut or scrape the eye while the animal grazes, dusty or windy conditions and face flies. Other flies like horn flies and stable flies may be also involved.
The current thinking is M. bovis is the primary pathogen and that M. bovicoli works as a co-pathogen.
Source: the Fence Post, August 2, 2010. Link. “Vaccines are not a panacea; they go hand-in-hand with good management and seem to help, in most cases,” says Kenneth Vroman, DVM. Vaccination also seems to have an additive effect. When you go through a herd and give them all an autogenous vaccine for one or both bacteria strains, Moraxella bovis or M. bovoculi, you have better pinkeye control the second year that you use the vaccine. It’s like a booster; it seems like we need to build herd immunity.”
Also see: Winter pinkeye infections increasing, Animal Health Digest, October 2, 2019. Link.
INSIGHTS: Addison Biological Laboratory is referenced in this article. It produces pinkeye vaccines, including the world’s first Moraxella boviculi vaccine < link >. This article gives a well-rounded explanation to the challenges of pinkeye infections, including how easily it can be spread.
Use these articles in discussions with producers, in social media and newsletters. The tall grasses and wet conditions across much of cattle country this year make pinkeye prevention and management a priority this fall.