The fur of Costa Rican sloths appears to harbor antibiotic-producing bacteria that scientists hope may hold a solution to the growing problem of “superbugs” resistant to humanity’s dwindling arsenal of drugs.
Sloth fur, research has found, hosts bustling communities of insects, algae, fungi and bacteria among other microbes, some of which could pose disease risk.
Yet, experts say, the famously slow-moving mammals appear to be surprisingly infection-proof.
Photo: AFP
“If you look at the sloth’s fur, you see movement: you see moths, you see different types of insects ... a very extensive habitat,” Max Chavarria, a researcher at the University of Costa Rica, said.
“Obviously when there is co-existence of many types of organisms, there must also be systems that control them,” he added.
Chavarria and a team took fur samples from Costa Rican two and three-toed sloths to examine what that control system could be.
Photo: AFP
They found the possible existence of antibiotic-producing bacteria that “makes it possible to control the proliferation of potentially pathogenic bacteria ... or inhibit other competitors” such as fungi, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Microbiology.
NO INFECTION
The sloth is a national symbol in laid back Costa Rica and a major tourist attraction for the Central American country.
Photo: AFP
Both the two-toed (Choloepus Hoffmanni) and three-toed (Bradypus variegatus) sloth species have seen their populations decline, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. They live in the canopies of trees in the jungle on the Caribbean coast, where the climate is hot and humid.
American Judy Avey runs a sanctuary in the balmy jungle to care for sloths injured after coming into contact with humans or other animals.
She treats and rehabilitates the creatures releasing them back into the wild.
Photo: AFP
“We’ve never received a sloth that has been sick, that has a disease or has an illness,” she said.
“We’ve received sloths that had been burned by power lines and their entire arm is just destroyed ... and there’s no infection. “I think maybe in the 30 years (we’ve been open), we’ve seen five animals that have come in with an infected injury. So that tells us there’s something going on in their ... bodily ecosystem.”
Avey, who established the sanctuary with her late Costa Rican husband, Luis Arroyo, had never even heard of a sloth back home in Alaska.
But since receiving her first sloth in 1992, whom she named Buttercup, she has cared for around 1,000 animals.
PENICILLIN INSPIRATION
Researcher Chavarria took fur samples taken from sloths at the sanctuary to examine in his laboratory.
He began his research in 2020, and has already pinpointed 20 “candidate” microorganisms waiting to be named.
But he said there is a long road ahead in determining whether the sloth compounds could be useful to humans.
“Before thinking about an application in human health, it’s important to first understand ... what type of molecules are involved,” said Chavarria.
An example of this is penicillin, discovered in 1928 by British scientist Alexander Fleming, who discovered that a fungal contamination of a laboratory culture appeared to kill a disease-causing bacteria.
His discovery of the world’s first bacteria-killer, or antibiotic, earned him the 1945 Nobel Prize in medicine.
However, microbial resistance to antibiotics has been a growing problem, meaning some medicines no longer work to fight the infections they were designed to treat.
Antimicrobial resistance is a natural phenomenon, but the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in humans, animals and plants has made the problem worse. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2050, resistance to antibiotics could cause 10 million deaths a year.
“Projects like ours can contribute to finding ... new molecules that can, in the medium or long term, be used in this battle against antibiotic resistance,” Chavarria said.
Dec. 16 to Dec. 22 Growing up in the 1930s, Huang Lin Yu-feng (黃林玉鳳) often used the “fragrance machine” at Ximen Market (西門市場) so that she could go shopping while smelling nice. The contraption, about the size of a photo booth, sprayed perfume for a coin or two and was one of the trendy bazaar’s cutting-edge features. Known today as the Red House (西門紅樓), the market also boasted the coldest fridges, and offered delivery service late into the night during peak summer hours. The most fashionable goods from Japan, Europe and the US were found here, and it buzzed with activity
During the Japanese colonial era, remote mountain villages were almost exclusively populated by indigenous residents. Deep in the mountains of Chiayi County, however, was a settlement of Hakka families who braved the harsh living conditions and relative isolation to eke out a living processing camphor. As the industry declined, the village’s homes and offices were abandoned one by one, leaving us with a glimpse of a lifestyle that no longer exists. Even today, it takes between four and six hours to walk in to Baisyue Village (白雪村), and the village is so far up in the Chiayi mountains that it’s actually
These days, CJ Chen (陳崇仁) can be found driving a taxi in and around Hualien. As a way to earn a living, it’s not his first choice. He’d rather be taking tourists to the region’s attractions, but after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the region on April 3, demand for driver-guides collapsed. In the eight months since the quake, the number of overseas tourists visiting Hualien has declined by “at least 90 percent, because most of them come for Taroko Gorge, not for the east coast or the East Longitudinal Valley,” he says. Chen estimates the drop in domestic sightseers after the
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo, speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum last week, said the US is confident it can defeat the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Pacific, though its advantage is shrinking. Paparo warned that the PRC might launch a “war of necessity” even if it thinks it could not win, a wise observation. As I write, the PRC is carrying out naval and air exercises off its coast that are aimed at Taiwan and other nations threatened by PRC expansionism. A local defense official said that China’s military activity on Monday formed two “walls” east
RSS