Researchers at the University of California, Davis (home to the nation's best vetrinary program), have found that dog saliva kills E. Coli and Streptococcus canis, another bacteria harmful to humans.
Interesting. Journal citation?
Researchers at the University of California, Davis (home to the nation's best vetrinary program), have found that dog saliva kills E. Coli and Streptococcus canis, another bacteria harmful to humans.
Interesting. Journal citation?
Considering the scavenging nature of dogs (not to mention their disturbing habit of occassional "recycling") I wouldnt be at all suprised if they had evolved a few antiseptic qualities.
Here are some interesting links:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2125128&dopt=Abstract
http://www.bionewsonline.com/y/2/streptococcus_v.htm
this one is hard to locate, you can do a page search for "canine" and it should be the second hit, here is the relevant text to make it easier:
Physiol Behav, 1990 Sep, 48(3), 383 - 6
Antibacterial properties of saliva: role in maternal periparturient grooming and in licking wounds; Hart BL et al.; Canine saliva was tested for its bactericidal effects against pathogens relevant to the presumed hygienic functions of maternal grooming of the mammary and anogenital areas and licking of wounds . Both female and male saliva were bactericidal against Escherichia coli and Streptococcus canis but only slightly, and nonsignificantly, bactericidal against coagulase positive staphylococcus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa . E . coli is the cause of highly fatal coliform enteritis of neonatal mammals and E . coli and S . canis are the main pathogens implicated in neonatal septicemia of dogs . The bactericidal effects of saliva would facilitate the hygienic function of maternal licking of the mammary and anogenital areas in protecting newborns from these diseases . E . coli and S . canis along with coagulase positive staphylococcus and P . aeruginosa are among the common wound contaminants of dogs . Wound licking, and the application of saliva, would thus reduce wound contamination by E . coli and S . canis . The resistance of staphylococcus to bactericidal effects of saliva may be a factor in the high frequency (46 percent) with which coagulase positive staphylococcus was isolated from wounds compared with much lower frequency (9-17 percent) with which E . coli and S . canis were isolated.
Dog spit is antiseptic.
Mtnbkr is traveling, but I'll leave him tell you what his dog and daughter do.
Think... "French Kiss"
Oh boy, I hope his dog doesn't do what I caught my dog doing one fine day. I'm cutting the lawn out back and my dog is running around having a grand old time when she stops suddenly and squats. OK, no problem. She finishes up, does her little grass scratching thing and then turns around gobbles up a turd. It happened so fast, I never had a chance to stop her. Well, needless to say, Zoe has limited licking privileges now.