Fish Bandages Help Burned Bears Heal

Jan-27-18 Innovative, edible bandages made of fish skin offer a solution for badly burned bears.

Bears often suffer burns after forest fires, which poses a particular problem for the large animals because they are not able to walk or stand on the burned paws. In addition, treating the wild animals is difficult, because of the time they need to heal, which means they must stay in the facility and be tended to by humans.

As an alternative, a team from the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital drew upon a technique developed in Brazil that uses sterilized tilapia skins to treat burns on humans. The inexpensive, sterilized skins were sutured directly to the bears’ paws and then wrapped in corn husks. The husks kept the bears from eating the bandages right away, which when combined with other treatments allowed the skins to stay in place long enough for the animal’s paws to heal in weeks instead of months.

More Info about this Invention:

[BBC.COM]
[UCDAVIS.EDU]

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