Milk From The Very Teat O’ The Tassie Devil Could Be Used To Beat Superbugs

Last I heard of it, Tasmanian Devils were extinct.
After asking my colleague and Tasmanian-knower-of-things, Cameron Tyeson, it turns out it is the Tasmanian Tiger that is sadly extinct, and the Devils are still around – just in scarce numbers.
And we should thank flora gods for that, ’cause it turns out their milk could be an interesting weapon in the global fight against superbugs – aka diseases that can’t be killed by antibiotics.
like this but not as cool
Aussie researchers have just discovered that antimicrobial peptides in the mammal’s milk can kill deadly bacterial and fungal infections – including the tough-to-budge golden staph.
Published in the Scientific Reports section of the Nature journal, the results of the study are crucial in many a scientist’s quest against superbugs which are set to kill more people than cancer within four decades if we don’t find a cure.
Why were the milking them lil devil’s titties in the first place, I hear you ask?
A devil’s gestation period is incredibly short – baby devils are born super under-developed after just 21 days in the womb. So, of course, researchers believed the mother’s milk would surely play a role in the development of the joeys’ immune system as a bubba.
Staphylococcus aureus (a bacterium we wrote about last week after a model contracted it from a dirty make-up brush) aka golden staph is one of the drug resistant bacteria the milk killed. 30% of the population carries it in areas like ya snozz – and it’s never an issue unless it ends up in your bloodstream. When that happens, death is a possibility. 
So it’s bloody good news. What should fill you with more national pride is that fact that Sydney University is also studying koala’s milk at the moment – and preliminary results show similar peptides.

Taz and Blinky Bill, aye. The unlikely heroes we didn’t know we needed.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Photo: Looney Tunes.

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