Scottish Heather Honey cures horses

[gavin]

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/32515/honey-for-treating-horse-wounds

“As a scientist and equine surgeon, I am very excited by our findings (which) suggest that there are a number of other types of honey that are equally—if not more—effective (than manuka) in inhibiting the growth of bacteria in wounds,” said Patrick Pollock, DVM, PhD, of the Weipers Centre for Equine Welfare in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Pollock and colleagues investigated the effects of 28 different honeys—the majority of which were purchased at a local supermarket—on infectious agents recovered from equine wounds. They first tested the honeys for the presence of infectious agents of their own. They then tested those considered “uncontaminated” in a laboratory on 10 different bacteria isolates from equine wounds.


.......

Interestingly, the “medicinal” honeys weren't necessarily the most effective, Pollock added. In fact, the best performance came from Scottish heather honey, which inhibited the growth of all 10 bacterial isolates at very low concentrations (ranging from only 2-6%).

[Kate Atchley]

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/32515/honey-for-treating-horse-wounds
Interestingly, the “medicinal” honeys weren't necessarily the most effective, Pollock added. In fact, the best performance came from Scottish heather honey, which inhibited the growth of all 10 bacterial isolates at very low concentrations (ranging from only 2-6%).

Interesting ... thanks Gavin. Somehow unsurprising though ... a superb honey in every way. Perhaps I shouldn't have mixed all my heather honey into the main blossom honey crop this year (for wonderful blend of flavours). Maybe we'll be selling the heather honey for ££££££s in future?

Would cheer up any horse to lick that from his/her wound ... manuka tastes weird!

[madasafish]

I hope they tested the honey for evidence of antibiotics first as much imported honey includes them - mainly Chines..

[wee willy]

R**se is selling mixed blossom honey displaying the following ." Strength3"
What scale is being quoted from I can only guess!
WW


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[Neils]

Reading the first post. why wouldn't local honey be more effective at inhibiting bacteria in wounds than Manuka? Manuka is from halfway round the world where you'd expect that bacteria not to exist. Yes there's general conditions that bacteria don't like, but clumping bacteria in one homogeneous lump that squeals in contact with manuka honey is a bit simplistic.

[The Drone Ranger]

I think the idea is that Manuka honey has additional properties like Tea Tree oil because of the source plants
I watched a program about a clinic treating wounds in Africa they didn't have Honey so sugar was bandaged on the wound and it worked reasonably well
The idea there was to dessicate the bacteria and like preserving jam using sugar to make an unfriendly atmosphere for other bacteria

I have to admit I would have been happier to see the hospital having access to antibiotics at an affordable price

[prakel]

Sort of associated:

Sick Honeybees may be nursed by Doctors

www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141025-honeybees-play-doctors-and-nurses


A group of worker bees called "nurse bees", if they are infected with a parasite, selectively eat honey that has a high antibiotic activity, according to Silvio Erler of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Halle, Germany and his colleagues.