Can a liquid bandage be used as a new treatment for infectious causes of lameness in sheep and reduce antibiotic treatment?

Lameness in sheep is a major welfare concern with a prevalence of 10.6% in England from 2004 figures, and footrot identified as the primary cause. The pathogenesis of footrot is complex and multifactorial with the primary pathology mostly related to the bacterial replication of Dichelobacter nodosus. Severity increases due to concurrent contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD) which is associated with treponeme infection. Footrot and CODD cases are both highly infectious and difficult to control on UK sheep farms. Injectable antibiotics are recommended for clinically lame animals accounting for two thirds of the total antibiotics used in the UK sheep industry.

Notwithstanding, an important facet of disease management is the need to rapidly curtail the spread of infectious bacteria from any sheep that do develop either footrot or CODD. Achieving this without resorting to antibiotic therapy would be of enormous benefit to both the welfare of sheep and the desirable reduction of antibiotic usage.

Robust, rapid-setting antibacterial liquid barriers (bandages) have recently been reported by Bastos et al (2020) and their use exemplified on the hooves of cattle to heal digital dermatitis. Designed, specifically, for lesions that encounter extreme conditions, such as pasture, mud, water and slurry, these barriers not only protect the wound from the environment but they retain their inherent sterile nature by contact killing bacteria that might otherwise breach the barrier or establish biofilms on it. These materials use feed grade components only, namely a natural polymer (shellac) plus copper and zinc to aid structure and provide antibacterial activity. The technology has been licensed by a spin out company of the University of Cambridge, called 'NoBACZ Healthcare'- the industrial partner for this application.