Research Show Sodium Chlorate May Reduce E.coli in Lambs

Research Shows Sodium Chlorate May Reduce E.coli in Lambs

Scours in young livestock can be fatal but also can hinder the genetic growth potential of animals, even after they’ve been cured. After the break we will visit with an Idaho animal scientist about his research to find a non-antibiotic solution to scours in lambs, I’m KayDee Gilkey with Open Range.?

USDA's Agricultural Research Service animal scientist Bret Taylor shares more about his research of single dosing sodium chlorate to reduce the spread of E.Coli to newborn lambs and prevent neonatal diarrhea or scours.

Taylor: “Our goal was to come up with something that was non-antibiotic based. The whole basis of these is that E.coli which occur quite often in neonatal scours are susceptible to sodium chlorate. They actually have an enzyme that can reduce sodium chlorate to a toxic chloric compound that internally can kill the bacteria. And so by providing this to the lamb in the milk or dosing them as you would with an oral dose. We found we can actually decrease the amount of E.coli in the lower intestine where the scouring disease would occur.”

Although their research looks very promising, unfortunately, it is not yet FDA-approved as a treatment for scours in livestock.

I’m KayDee Gilkey with Open Range on the Northwest Ag Information Network.