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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Topical erythritol and vitamin C reduce staph growth in dog skin

By Tochio, T et al.·Published in Polish journal of veterinary sciences·2023·B Food Science Co., Japan·View original on PubMed

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Original publication title: Topical erythritol combined with L-ascorbyl-2-phosphate inhibits staphylococcal growth and alleviates staphylococcal overgrowth in skin lesions of canine superficial pyoderma.

Species:
dog

Plain-English summary

A group of dogs with skin infections called superficial pyoderma were treated with a combination of topical erythritol and L-ascorbyl-2-phosphate to see if it could help reduce the bacteria causing their skin problems. After 28 days of treatment, the results showed that this combination significantly decreased the levels of harmful staphylococcal bacteria on their skin. This approach could be a helpful alternative to using antibiotics for treating these types of skin infections in dogs.

People also search for: dog skin infection treatment · topical erythritol for dogs · superficial pyoderma in dogs

Abstract

Erythritol (ERT) and L-ascorbyl-2-phosphate (APS) are bacteriostatic, but their effects on staphylococcal skin infections remain unknown. We aimed to determine whether ERT combined with APS inhibits the growth of staphylococci that are commonly isolated from pyoderma skin lesions in dogs. We investigated the individual and combined effects of ERT and APS on the growth of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, S. schleiferi, and S. aureus using turbidity assays in vitro. Skin lesions from 10 dogs with superficial pyoderma were topically treated with 5% ERT and 0.1% APS for 28 days, and swabbed skin samples were then analyzed using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Results showed that ERT inhibited S. pseudintermedius growth regardless of harboring the mecA gene, and APS increased the inhibitory effects of ERT against S. pseudintermedius, S. schleiferi, and S. aureus in vitro. Moreover, combined ERT and APS decreased the prevalence of staphylococci on canine skin lesions at the genus level. The combination slightly increased the α-diversity but did not affect the β-diversity of the microbiota. The qPCR results revealed that the combination significantly decreased S. pseudintermedius and S. schleiferi in skin lesions. Topical administration of EPS combined with APS can prevent staphylococcal colonization on the surface of mammalian skin. The results of this study may provide an alternative to systemic antibiotics for treating superficial pyoderma on mammalian skin surfaces.

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Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38088308/