Zoo animal poo could ‘help kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria’ and save NHS £1bn a year

The Independent

Viruses found in the poo of endangered animals could be used to treat diabetic foot ulcers and save the NHS £1 billion a year, a research team led by Professor Graham Stafford has suggested.  A team from the University of Sheffield said naturally occurring viruses in the poo – known as bacteriophage or phages – could be included in dressings applied to untreatable ulcers with further research.  There are thousands of different types of phages, which selectively target and kill bacteria, even in instances when antibiotics do not work. Phage therapy was first discovered in the early 20th century.  The research team, led by Professor Graham Stafford, used poo from various animals, including Guinea baboons, lemurs and Visayan pigs, which are housed at Yorkshire Wildlife Park (YWP).Source: PA

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00:00 At the University of Sheffield we're working with the people here at Yorkshire Wildlife

00:03 Park taking what we call environmental samples but it's really zoopoo and from the zoopoo

00:09 we are looking at what bacteria and what viruses are in there and specifically viruses that

00:14 attack bacteria not humans.

00:16 So we work with colleagues at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, the microbiology unit

00:21 there who collect the samples from antibiotic resistant infections of people with diabetic

00:26 foot ulcers and the ultimate plan is to collect lots of these viruses that attack the bacteria

00:33 that infect people and try and cure their diabetic foot ulcers and possibly even other

00:39 infections that are antibiotic resistant in the future because the more alternatives to

00:43 antibiotics we can make the less antibiotics we use and the longer they last and the better

00:49 we can cure people in the future.

00:51 We can find animals with bacteria and resistances and viruses all around the environment and

00:59 they're all linked together so the more we can understand what's going on across the

01:04 animal world, the human world and link them all together the better chance we have of

01:08 understanding how we can treat infections in the future.

01:12 So we're doing really well and we've got some from the lemurs, baboons, wallabies,

01:18 fisarcha, warty pigs I think you call them here and a few of the others as well and we're

01:26 continuing to work with the team here to collect more and see if we can find more in the future.

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