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Veterinarian uses honey on injured sea turtles

By RUSS BYNUM

Associated Press Writer

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Months after Duffy suffered grievous cuts from a boat propeller, the 75-pound loggerhead sea turtle circles her tank flashing glimpses of the deep wound her veterinarians have plugged with what looks like some sort of milky, mystery paste.

Stephen Morton
AP Photo

Dr. Terry Norton, right, veterinarian and director of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, examines a loggerhead sea turtle named Duffy at the center, Nov. 24 in Jekyll Island, Ga. Norton is using bees honeycomb to fight infection in sea turtles with deep lacerations from boat propellers.

The sticky stuff vets at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center have used to seal Duffy's wound may have saved her life. It's a new treatment for injured sea turtles that has roots in ancient Rome — and it's about as low-tech as medicine gets.

The mystery paste is actually beeswax from a mashed-up honeycomb, generously coated with honey.

Dr. Terry Norton, director of the sea turtle hospital on Jekyll Island, says he wasn't sure Duffy would survive after a research boat found her in June off the northern Florida cost.

A boat propeller had cracked her massive shell, nearly severed her rear right flipper and sliced so deeply into the flesh that Norton could bury both his fists inside the wound.

Norton says slathering Duffy's wound with honey seems to help kill bacteria that cause infection while also boosting her immune system. The beeswax packed several inches into the cut keeps out water that bacteria and fungus need to grow.

"It seems to be working better than anything else we've done," Norton says after wrestling Duffy to the edge of her tank for an antibiotic shot. "I definitely think it's healing faster. The wound's getting smaller."

May R. Berenbaum, an entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says she's not surprised honey would be beneficial to an injured sea turtle — or any other animal, including humans.

The healing properties of honey have been known to physicians for thousands of years. It fell by the wayside as a treatment for cuts and sores in the 1940s when antibiotics first went into mass production.

"Ancient Roman soldiers used to carry honey in their medical gear expressly for wound treatment," Berenbaum says. "But the era of synthetic drugs kind of knocked it, and a lot of things, out of use."

Some honeys make potent medicines because bees make it from plant nectars full of flavonoids and other chemicals that are antimicrobial, meaning they kill germs, and antioxidants, which can boost immunity.

Honey may also be making a comeback in treating people because of concerns over bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved bandage dressings treated with honey produced with nectar from the manuka tea tree in New Zealand.

Norton, a former zoo veterinarian, says he had previously used honey to treat injuries in tigers and other animals. He'd tried using it on sea turtles at the Georgia hospital, but the honey would wash away quickly after water seeped into the turtles' bandages.

One of Norton's interns, whose parents are beekeepers, had the idea of using honeycomb wax to pack the wound. Mashed into a paste, the beeswax has the consistency of thick oatmeal and is easily molded to fit inside cuts and gashes.

The honey concoction has another benefit: Unlike gauze dressings, which have to be changed every day or two, the beeswax dressing can remain clean and in place for up to two weeks.

Experts say there's potential upside for reviving old-fashioned treatments.

"It's one of those old tricks they stopped teaching us, but it doesn't make it less effective," says Dr. Craig Harms, a veterinarian at North Carolina State University who specializes in sea turtles and other aquatic wildlife.

Loggerhead sea turtles have been federally protected as a threatened species for 30 years, though their population remains so low that the government is considering a proposal to reclassify them as endangered.

The turtles, which weigh up to 300 pounds, spend most of their lives at sea. Adult females come ashore to lay their eggs every summer on U.S. beaches from Florida to North Carolina — bringing them into harms way from fishing nets and boat propellers.

About 20 percent of loggerheads found injured or dead on Georgia beaches have been struck by boats, says Mark Dodd, the sea turtle program coordinator for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. He says boat propellers killed 14 turtles and injured two this year.

In Florida, where the vast majority of U.S. loggerheads nest, researchers have documented 2,000 cases of loggerheads being hit by boats since 1980.

Norton cautions that Duffy's only the second loggerhead he's treated with honey and beeswax. The other, Gale, recovered rapidly and was set free in the ocean last month. Duffy, whose wounds were more serious, likely won't be ready to return to the wild until May, Norton says.

"In this field we have to try new things, because that's the only way you're going to learn," he says. "It's not like there's a lot of people treating sea turtles."

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