SIU researchers find a way to cure disease that causes infertility in horses

Sheryl King discovered a helpful remedy to prevent infertility in horses by using a sugar found in chewing gum.

King, a professor in the Animal Science Department, developed an inexpensive treatment a plant-based sugar called mannose that can cure and prevent endometritis in horses.

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Endometritis is a common uterine infection that makes mares, especially broodmares, infertile. It is an inflammation of the uterine lining caused by bacteria and is costly to treat.

King’s mannose sugar treatment is inexpensive and only costs about $1 per gram opposed to as much as $2,000 for a 10-day antibiotic.

Her treatment was tested on three different bacterial strains and proved to be successful in all of them.

King uses a double procedure in which she flushes out the uterus with a mannose-salt mix and then inseminates the mare with the mannose-containing semen extender.

The idea for this treatment was suggested more than 10 years ago by Graca Diaz, a doctoral student working with physiology professor Lynn Nequin.

Several graduate students have worked on the project throughout the years. One of them is Sarah Wessels, a research assistant in the Animal Science Department. She incorporated her work into master’s research project and defended her thesis last week on the topic, Xylitol and the Horse:Does xylitol prevent bacterial infections in the equine uterus?

My study questioned whether xylitol would be effective in fighting bacteria in the equine uterus, Wessels said. “This project added a new twist to a series of studies investigating the ability of sugars to prevent infections in the horse.”

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Xylitol is a sweet crystalline pentahydroxy alcohol obtained by a reduction in xylose.

Wessels said previous research done at SIU determined that the sugar mannose is capable of preventing bacteria from attaching to the mare’s uterine tissue. Also, other studies conducted elsewhere have shown that xylitol can prevent bacterial growth and attachment in the human mouth, nose and throat.

Wessels’ study did not find any significant difference in bacterial attachment between the xylitol-treated tissue and the controls, but further research is needed. There is no documentation of previous xylitol administration to horses.

“It is very possible that this study did not utilize strong enough concentrations or frequent enough dosage of the sugar,” Wessels said. “Future research should investigate exact dosage needed to be effective in the horse.”

Wessels said many aspects of the research project have aided horse owners across the country, and more research will be done to find a way to fight bacteria in the uterus.

“This and other sugar studies are important because they are investigating possible alternative therapies to antibiotics,” Wessels said. “Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a growing problem, and sugar therapy may be an alternative therapy to fight bacteria resistant to antibiotics.”

Reporter Keva Gaston can be reached at [email protected]