Mooove over, antibiotics. A recent study from Penn State showed that a concentrated sugar solution could deliver the same infection-fighting powers for treating a common dairy cow infection.
Sugar study: Researchers enrolled 77 cows with clinical metritis into the study. Half got a sugar solution called intrauterine dextrose, and the other half got systemic ceftiofur. Researchers tracked the cows’ recovery and used advanced DNA sequencing to monitor their microbial communities.
Despite a small sample size, the results were clear: dextrose could work just as effectively as antibiotics for mild metritis. Plus, dextrose doesn’t upset the balance of bacteria in the reproductive tract—an added benefit beyond fighting antibiotic resistance.
Sugared up: Sugar wasn’t selected at random to test. Despite its bad reputation these days, dextrose has already been studied in humans and animals for its ability to pull water out of bacteria, causing it to dry out and die.
Soundbite: “The main goal of this research was to test an antibiotic-free alternative option against the current gold standard for treating this prevalent disease.” — Erika Ganda, Penn State assistant professor of food animal microbiomes
Where this goes: More research is needed to determine the full potential of dextrose. But researchers are hopeful this alternative may reduce antibiotic resistance. Long-term dextrose treatment potentialcould extend to reproductive diseases in other species, including humans.