Milk from Tasmanian devils could counter antibiotic-resistance
Milk produced by Tasmanian devils could kill bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to research from Sydney University. The marsupials’ milk has been found to contain antimicrobial peptides known as cathelicidins, which are effective against a range of pathogens including “golden staph”. The ability of the peptides to kill superbugs means they could be developed into antibiotics. Tests demonstrated artificial versions of the peptides to be between three and six times more effective than some anti-fungal medications. The peptides could also help fight the tumour disease that has killed 80% of the wild devil population.

Milk from Tasmanian devils could kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria like golden staph and potentially combat the deadly facial tumour disease that has killed 80% of the wild devil population in the past 20 years.

According to research led by Sydney University PhD student Emma Peel, milk produced by the marsupials contains antimicrobial peptides called cathelicidins which had been tested as being effective against a number of pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or golden staph.

“These peptides are killing superbugs, so there is potential for future development into antibiotics,” Peel told the ABC.

“That is the next step for our research, to see if these peptides have anti-cancer potential, if they are killing superbugs maybe they could kill the facial tumour.”

Peel said the tests were done with artificial peptides made by extracting the cathelicidin sequence from the devil’s genome.

The artificial peptides also tested as between three and six times more effective against some fungal infections than anti-fungal medication.

Milking the famously aggressive animals was a process to be undertaken “very, very carefully and with a lots of safety gear,” Peel said.

Androo Kelly, owner and director of Trowunna Wildlife park in northern Tasmania, which has bred 16 generations of devils, said it could be done but “I don’t think you would set up a dairy”.

He tried his hand at milking devils in the 1990s for an earlier series of research by University of Tasmania associate professor Menna Jones.

“The devils that we have, we have mothers with young that are also used to being handled, so it’s a simple thing that when the mothers are lactating you just squeeze the milk out,” he said. “It was more of a once off, it would not be a common practice.”

Kelly said the research answered the longstanding question of why young devils did not contract the highly contagious devil facial tumour disease from infected mothers. It also explained how the immature young, which are born at just 3mm long and mature in the pouch, survive without a mature immune system.

“I really believed that the solution to the devils disease was something within them … this is only further supporting that,” he said.

Devil facial tumour disease was first reported in 1996 and spread to cover 95% of Tasmania, prompting an international breeding program to save the animal.

Recent research found the carrion-eating marsupials had already evolved a degree of resistance to the disease, which is caused by two of only four strains of viral cancer to be found in the wild.

Researchers in Hobart have also developed a vaccine and begun releasing vaccinated devils into areas believed to be free of the disease.