Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture Field Notes
Going by Mary Poppins’ well-loved line, a spoonful of sugar can help the medicine go down – but what if sugar is the medicine?
For treating mild uterine infections in dairy cattle, a group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recently reported that a solution of dextrose can be as effective as antibiotics.
In addition to treating infections, the researchers noted, this alternative approach could also postpone the development of resistance to antibiotics. It also diversifies organic cattle ranchers’ medicine kit, where standards restrict their use of antibiotics.
The researchers compared a common antibiotic against the sugar solution for effectiveness in treating mild cases of endometritis, a common uterine infection in dairy cattle.
The idea itself is not new. Sugar solutions have been effective in treating other bacterial infections, including in humans. The approach relies on the principle of osmosis – the concentrated solution draws water out of the bacterial cells, essentially dehydrating them to death.
Based on that established information, the research team expected that the sugar solution would be effective. The surprise was that it performed as well as the antibiotic.
“We were hopeful that we would find positive results, but we were definitely not expecting to find that both treatments worked similarly for mild cases of metritis,” said Adrian Barragan, co-lead author on the study. “That was a very exciting discovery.”
The dextrose solution had an additional benefit: unlike antibiotics, it did not disrupt the balance of the cows’ naturally occurring beneficial gut bacteria.
With further research, Barragan said, ““Our findings may be applicable for reproductive disease in human medicine.”
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science.
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