MANNO-MAX®

EQUINE UTERINE INFECTIONS

Closely related to glucose, mannose is found in such plants as lentils, peas, and jack beans.

 “One of my Ph.D. veterinary students was looking with an electron microscope at how bacteria attached to the inside of the uterine lining,” King explained.

“That led us to look into various modes of attachment, and then we discovered that sugars were involved. Basically, it is like a lock and key-a specific kind of binding between the bacteria and a particular sugar that is a part of the chemical makeup of the lining of different tissues, such as the uterine lining.”

 Overwhelm Attachment

 “Our theory was this: If this is how the bacteria makes its initial attachment, and it has to attach in order to invade the tissue, if we just introduce a bunch of that particular sugar, we can overwhelm the bacteria’s attachment and they will just wash out,” King continued. “And, lo and behold, it works!”

Unlike antibiotic therapy, mannose does not kill the bacteria. Instead, the bacteria bind to the mannose solution infused into the uterus and are flushed out with the solution.

Three types of common bacteria that cause uterine infections bind to mannose – Streptococcus zooepidemicus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli. These bacteria can be present on the mare’s hindquarters and enter the uterus accidentally during breeding.

blasting the mare with everything but the kitchen sink [antibiotics].

“The worst one, and the one we were most interested in because it is the most problematic, is Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It is a particularly nasty bacteria,“ King said. “It is very hard to get rid of once a mare is infected with it. Second of all, pseudomonas species of bacteria, in particular, have become resistant to a very large number of antibiotics. So, you have to go to some very exotic, extremely expensive antibiotic therapies to try to cure them of this kind of infection.”…..

…..An infected or dirty mare may go through cycle after cycle of treatment before the infection is cleared up. If the bacterium causing the infection is resistant to antibiotics, some infections may persist for years while the mare’s biological clock ticks away. During the process, it is not unrealistic for the owner of a particularly valuable broodmare to spend $1,000 per day to restore her reproductive health.

…..Treatment regimen

As the ultimate test of mannose therapy, King accepted into her program three chronically infected mares that had been unable to get in foal for several years. After treating the mares with mannose lavages for two cycles, they were bred on the third cycle. “All three of those mares have gotten pregnant; all three of them have delivered at least one foal for us, and all are back in foal,” King reported.

Related articles by Dr. King can be found by clicking on the button below:

Numerous clinical trials have demonstrated that D-mannose can be used effectively to resolve equine reproductive tract infections caused by three common types of bacteria; Streptoccous zooepidemicus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli.

The following excerpts are from an article entitled Sweet Solution by award winning veterinary writer Denise Steffanus, published in the February 2002 issue of Thoroughbred Times .

Reproductive tract infections in the mare can be difficult and expensive to cure with antibiotics.

Sheryl King, Ph.D., professor and director of the equine program at Southern Illinois University, and her research associates have found a quicker, safer, cheaper, and more effective way to cure uterine infections using mannose, a naturally occurring simple sugar.

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