Scientists have developed a new oral spray that they claim can reduce stinky breath and harmful mouth bacteria in dogs.
Bad odour in dogs, often described as rotten and metallic, can signal dental disease like tooth decay or gum disease.
For this, veterinary clinics currently prescribe either daily tooth brushing using pet-safe enzymatic toothpastes, antibiotics, chemical rinses, or dental chews for milder cases.
Now, researchers have developed a low-cost alternative treatment derived from molasses, a by-product of sugarcane refining.
“Our goal was to investigate if a sustainable agricultural by-product could safely improve the daily oral health of our pets,” said Hongye Li, an author of the study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Scientists previously found that sugarcane molasses contained polyphenols that prevented the growth of harmful oral bacteria in lab cultures.
In the new study, they assessed whether similar extracts could treat the bacteria that cause halitosis, or bad breath, in dogs.
Researchers recruited 10 healthy pet dogs with smelly breath after getting consent from their owners.
They tested how a molasses-derived mouth spray impacted the animals’ breath, oral microbiome and saliva composition. Polyphenol extracts made from molasses were sprayed into each dog’s mouth.
Scientists then took saliva samples and monitored the smell of the dogs’ breath. Odour perceived by trained human evaluators from the samples was negligible, researchers found.
The amount of some bad-smelling compounds, including esters, amines and aldehydes, in the dogs’ saliva was estimated using a chemical analysis technique called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
Researchers found that the levels of these compounds in the samples were almost undetectable.
“The spray itself has a mild plant-like and molasses-like smell, but it is not strong or unpleasant,” Dr Li said.
“Importantly, the deodorising effect was not simply due to odour masking, because the GC-MS results showed reductions in several odour-associated compounds in saliva,” he said.
Scientists also studied the long-term effects of the spray on the dogs by treating them with it daily for 30 days.
They found that it led to the dogs’ saliva containing much smaller amounts of aroma compounds, including aldehydes and short-chain fatty acid esters produced by pathogenic bacteria that contribute to fatty odours.
The dogs also had significantly lower levels of bacteria associated with bad breath, including Porphyromonas and Fusobacterium.
Researchers hope to conduct further tests to better understand how the polyphenols and odour molecules interact.
They liken the spray to a sponge, a switch, and a gardener.
“First, the polyphenols act like a 'molecular sponge,' directly binding to and neutralising existing bad odour molecules,” Li says.
“Second, they act as a 'switch' to turn off specific bacterial enzymes that produce foul smells. Finally, they work as a 'gardener' to weed out the populations of bad odour-causing bacteria over time,” he explained.
They hope to test the spray in more pet participants and develop a simple, safe and sustainable way to keep pets healthy.
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