CROCLIST: Alligator Blood Antibiotic

[sgrenard at si.rr.com]

The presence of naturally ocurring peptide antibiotics or antimicrobials in amphibians and reptiles is not new, nor is the method of discovering them. Dr. Michael Zasloff when at the NIH noticed that Xenopus laevis frogs used in lab work were often injected or cut aand then placed back in filthy, often fecally contaminated water and their wounds healed without infection of any kind. He eventually discovered a series of peptide antimicrobials in the skin of these frogs which he called "maginins: or shield in Hebrew. In fact he left the NIH and established a whole pharma company around these substances but I haven't heard much about it since then. 

I agree that these substances help fight off microbial infection, bacterial and perhaps viral as well, but as Adam says a compromised immune system which works in concert with these peptides may still produce morbidity and mortality due to overwhelming infection.  As someone involved with the treatment of human infectious diseases compromised immunity definitely makes it more difficult or even impossible irrespective of how many well targeted antibiotics are administered to such patients. 

I think also that "stress" leading to immune deficiency  can be due to a variety of causes, not just merely that of captivity. Improper air/water temperatures, water quality problems involving salinity, pH, hardness, also diet, over- crowding ... anything you can think of that occurs in captivity and not in nature.