An unusual animal that may have an answer to 'superbugs'

A sloth hangs from a tree branch at the sloth shelter in Cahuita, Costa Rica. Credit: EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP

The fur of Costa Rican sloths appears to contain bacteria that produce antibiotics that scientists hope could solve the growing problem of «superbugs» resistant to humanity's dwindling arsenal of medicines.

Research has shown that sloth fur is home to noisy communities of insects, algae, fungi and bacteria, as well as other microbes, some of which can pose health risks. be remarkably resistant to infections.

“If you look at the fur of a sloth, you will see movement: you will see moths, you will see different types of insects… a very vast habitat,” Max Chavarria, a University of Costa Rica researcher told AFP.

“Obviously that when many types of organisms coexist, there must be systems that control them,” he said.

< p>Mr. what could this control system be.

They found the possible existence of antibiotic-producing bacteria that «allow control of the growth of potentially pathogenic bacteria…or the suppression of other competitors» such as fungi, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Microbiology.

Experts say known slow-moving mammals have proven surprisingly resistant to infections. Photo: EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP

The sloth is the national symbol of tranquil Costa Rica and the country's main tourist attraction in Central America.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, populations of both two-toed (Choloepus hoffmanni) and three-toed (Bradypus variegatus) sloths have declined.

< p>They live in the crowns of trees in the jungle on the Caribbean coast, where the climate is hot and humid.

American Judy Avey runs a shelter in the fragrant jungle, where she cares for sloths that have been injured after contact with people or other animals.

She treats and rehabilitates creatures to release them back into the wild.

< p>«We never got a sloth that was sick, sick or sick,» she told AFP.

«We got sloths that got burned by power lines and their whole arm just got destroyed… and no infection.

“I think maybe in 30 years (we were open) we saw five animals with infected injuries. It tells us that something is going on in their … bodily ecosystem.”

Ms. Avey, who created the orphanage with Luis Arroyo, her late husband from Costa Rica, never even never heard of sloths back home. in Alaska.

Pathogenic bacteria

Since she got her first sloth, which she named Buttercup, in 1992, she has taken care of about 1,000 animals.

Mr. Chavarria took fur samples taken from sloths at the shelter for research in his lab.

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He started his research in 2020 and has already identified 20 candidate microorganisms waiting to be named .

But he said there is still a long way to go to determine whether sloth compounds could be beneficial to humans.

“Before thinking about health applications, it is important to first understand … what type of molecules are involved,” said Mr. Chavarria.

An example of this is penicillin, discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. , a British scientist who discovered that fungal contamination of a laboratory culture apparently killed disease-causing bacteria.

His discovery of the world's first bacteria killer, or antibiotic, won him the 1945 Nobel Prize. in medicine.

However, microbial resistance to antibiotics is a growing problem, meaning that some drugs no longer fight the infections they were designed to treat.

Resistance to antibiotics Antimicrobial use is a natural phenomenon, but the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in humans, animals and plants has exacerbated the problem.

The World Health Organization estimates that antibiotic resistance could lead to 10 million deaths a year by 2050.< /p>

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«Projects like ours could help find … new molecules that could be used in the medium to long term to combat antibiotic resistance,» Chavarria said.