Hunt for Superbugs in Australian Animals

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2012) — University of Adelaide scientists will lead a national research effort to hunt for so-called 'superbugs' in Australian livestock and pets.

The University's School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, based at the Roseworthy Campus, has received $110,000 in funding from Pfizer Animal Health Australia to conduct a pilot study, which is the first of its kind for the nation.

Scientists in the new Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Roseworthy will research the prevalence of resistance to all major classes of antibiotic for two key groups of pathogens, Escherichia coli and staphylococci, in livestock animals and pets.

"Australia currently has no coordinated national program monitoring antibiotic resistance in livestock or companion animal pathogens," says the Director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Dr Darren Trott.

"Resistance in these key pathogens is a major driver throughout the world of the use of antimicrobial drugs for livestock and companion animals."

Dr Trott says Australia has some of the world's most conservative restrictions regarding the use of antimicrobial drugs in livestock.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030101338.htm

Frog skin protein may help fight superbugs

Anna Salleh
ABC 

Proteins secreted by frog skin could one day help in the design of new antibiotics to fight superbugs, say researchers.

Biophysicist Dr Anton Le Brun, of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, and colleagues, report some of their work online in the European Biophysical Journal.

A few species of frogs are known to secrete peptides that protect against a broad range of unwanted bacteria.

The proteins are maculatin, from the green-eyed tree frog, and aurein, from the growling grass frog and the green and golden bellfrog.

Each protein has a unique way of killing bacteria by breaking their membranes, says Le Brun.

In research led by Professor Frances Separovic of the University of Melbourne, he and other colleagues used a device at the OPAL research reactor in Sydney to take a close-up look at the way in which maculatin and aurein do this.

They point out that no frogs were harmed in the research.

Instead, the research team used synthetic membranes and synthetic versions of the frog skin peptides. They used one membrane that mimicked a bacterial membrane, and another that mimicked a red blood cell membrane.

They wanted to look at the impact of the peptides on red cell membranes to ensure that they only damage bacterial cells and leave the animal cells untouched.

Using a device called a neutrons reflectometer the researchers studied exactly how and where the peptides bind to membranes.

Read on:  http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/03/19/3456896.htm