Dog's Drool: Is It Cool? Dog Saliva vs. Neosporin in Killing Bacteria

Overview

Objectives/Goals My project was to determine if dog saliva kills bacteria and to compare dog saliva to Neosporin in this process. Methods/Materials Petri dishes, agar, latex gloves, sterile cotton swabs, sterile distilled water, human saliva, dog saliva, and Neosporin were gathered. One petri dish was used as a negative control and contained no bacteria to show the agar was not contaminated. One petri dish was used as a positive control which only contained a swabbing of human saliva ("bacteria"). Two petri dishes contained the swabbing of human saliva ("bacteria") with the additional swabbing of dog saliva placed in the center of the dishes. Two other petri dishes contained the swabbing of human saliva ("bacteria") with the additional swabbing of Neosporin placed in the center of the dishes. The quantity/percentage of bacteria growing in each dish for five days was observed and documented. Results Dog saliva slowed down the quantity/growth of bacteria for a few days but still eventually grew bacteria. Neosporin not only prevented the growth of bacteria completely in the area applied, but it had a protective ring around it preventing the growth of bacteria, as well. Conclusions/Discussion Dog saliva may perhaps help slow the growth of bacteria for a little while, but it also may be adding its own bacteria when applied. Neosporin is the better medicine for helping kill bacteria. Neosporin not only proved to kill the bacteria but kept bacteria from growing at all.

Competition history

• CSEF 2010 Product Science (Biological) (Junior Division Only) · Entry J2105

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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