HONEY AND ESSENTIAL OIL OF THYME (Thymus fontanesii) SYNERGETIC ANTIMICROBIAL EFFECTS AGAINST Klebsiella sp., S. xylosus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa AND Bacillus sp. ISOLATED FROM GOAT’S MASTITIS MILK

The resistance of some bacterial strains to commonly used antibiotics in goat’s mastitis made it necessary to search some novel types of antimicrobial agents. The aim of this work was to investigate the antimicrobial activities of multi-floral honey and the essential oil of Thymus fontanesii when used jointly by determining the MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration) against some bacterial agents isolated from goat’s subclinical mastitis milk. The isolated bacteria were Klebsiella sp, Staphylococcus xylosus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus sp. The inoculum suspension of bacterial strains was taken from five colonies of 24 hours old cultures, grown on specific media. The results indicated the efficiency of multi-floral honey and essential oil of Thymus fontanesii against the isolated bacterial strains. -The MIC values for honey were 16%, 25%, 15% and 16% (vol/vol) for Klebsiella sp, Staphylococcus xylosus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus sp., respectively, whereas for Thymus essential oil these values were 0.03%, 0.03%, 0.03% and 0,01 (vol/vol), respectively. In this study when honey and essential oil were used jointly, a decrease of the MIC values was noticed, which may be due to a synergetic effect. These results suggested that multi-floral honey and essential oil of Thymus fontanesii could be used together to manage mastitis in goats.