Why do sloths never get sick? Researchers believe that the answer to this question could be provided by antibiotics against resistant germs.
Sloths don’t move much, but there’s always something moving in their fur. It is a habitat for insects, algae, fungi and bacteria – and therefore the animals should actually be sick all the time. But researchers and animal rights activists in Costa Rica hardly ever have an infected one sloth seen. Since 2020, scientist Max Chavarría from the University of Costa Rica has found various antibiotic components in the fur of the country’s sloths, giving hope for new antibiotics.
“If you look at the sloth’s fur, you see how it teems: you see moths, different types of insects… a complex one Habitat. Of course, when so many different organisms live together, there must be systems that keep them under control,” says Chavarría.
Sloths are endangered
With a team of scientists, he sampled two-toed sloths (Choloepus hoffmanni) and three-toed sloths (Bradypus variegatus) to study this control system. They found bacteria that may produce antibiotic substances that “allow potentially pathogenic bacteria to multiply.” bacteria to control,” says a study published in the journal Environmental Biology.
Sloths are a national symbol and tourist attraction of Costa Rica. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species states that populations of two-toed and three-toed sloths are declining. Both live in tree canopies in the jungles of Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, which has a hot and humid climate.
Antibiotics made from sloth fur: research is still in its infancy
Judy Avey from the USA maintains a sanctuary for injured sloths there and has, according to her own information, cared for around 1,000 animals since 1992. “In 30 years we may have seen five animals come to us with an infected injury. That tells us that in their physical ecosystem something special is going on,” emphasizes Avey. “We’ve had sloths burned on power lines that almost had their entire arm fall off, but they didn’t have an infection.”
Chavarría has been taking fur samples from sloths since 2020 and has so far found 20 “candidate” microorganisms. But according to him, it still needs a lot of time to determine if really Antibiotics can be obtained from sloth fur. “Before we can think of a medical application, we first have to know what kind of molecules we are dealing with,” he emphasizes.
2400 people die every year because of resistant germs
Before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin almost 100 years ago, common infectious diseases could mean a death sentence. Today, resistance of germs to antibiotics is a growing problem, exacerbated by the use of antibiotics in factory farming and the overuse of antibiotics in human medical care. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that antibiotic resistance could lead to ten million deaths per year by 2050.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), a European study in 2018 found around 54,000 cases of antibiotic resistance found that around 2,400 people die every year as a result of infection with resistant germs.
Chavarría sees his research as a good approach to curbing this problem. “Projects like ours can help to find new molecules in the medium and long term that can be used in the fight against antibiotic resistance.” Faultiere do humanity a great service. (lro/AFP)
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