Antimicrobial paint-on bandages for Digital Dermatitis

绷带有两个主要作用：首先，它们覆盖伤口以防止其变脏和感染，其次，它们允许任何药膏或其他应用的治疗被“锁定”，这样它们就不会被擦掉，并且可以在需要的地方发挥作用。然而，绷带在潮湿的环境中效果不佳，比如洗澡、淋浴或在雨中。他们一般不应该直接接触伤口，而是使用无菌敷料，所有这些都是耗时的，随着伤口愈合，定期更换。我们的公司NoBACZ Healthcare Ltd开发了一种液体，可以将其直接涂在或挤压到伤口上，使其迅速凝固，形成坚固的屏障，随着时间的推移会自然降解和脱落，并可以根据需要重新涂抹。这些涂料绷带做得很好，在潮湿，因为他们排斥水，不需要下敷料，旨在击退细菌。它们可以用于人类或动物的任何创伤或手术伤口，但我们已经确定了一种特别未满足的需求，即奶牛疾病，称为“数字皮炎”。在这里，牛的脚上会出现疼痛的溃疡，这些溃疡被泥浆中的细菌感染，而且非常难以治疗。仅在英国，农业每年的成本就约为6000万英镑。全世界范围内，这一数字每年远远超过10亿英镑。在剑桥大学农场的一项小型研究中，我们发现这些液体绷带在手指皮炎伤口上粘附良好，没有明显的不良反应，促进愈合，并在单次应用后一周克服了相关的跛行。我们现在计划在一个大型农场试验中证明，在治疗有效性、动物福利和经济学方面，全球奶牛养殖界采用我们的液体绷带来治疗指状皮炎是有说服力的。

Bandages have two primary roles: firstly, they cover a wound to stop it getting dirty and infected and secondly they allow any ointments or other applied treatments to be 'locked in', so that they don't get rubbed off and can have their effect where needed. However, bandages do not do well in the wet- such as the bath, the shower or just outside in the rain. They generally should not touch the wound directly but, instead, a sterile dressing is used and all of this is time consuming to take off and replace, on a regular basis, as the wound heals. Our company, NoBACZ Healthcare Ltd, has developed liquids that can be painted or squeezed directly onto wounds where they rapidly set, forming robust barriers that naturally degrade and shed over time and can be re-applied as required. These paint-on bandages do very well in the wet as they repel water, do not need an under dressing and are designed to repel bacteria. They could be used for any trauma wounds or surgical wounds in humans or animals, but we have identified a particularly unmet need in a disease of dairy cattle, called 'digital dermatitis'. Here, cattle get painful ulcers on their feet, which are infected with slurry-dwelling bacteria, and these are terribly hard to treat. The cost to the farming industry in the UK alone is about £60 million per annum. Worldwide it is well over a billion pounds per annum. In a small study at the University of Cambridge farm, we showed that these liquid bandages adhere well to digital dermatitis wounds, have no obvious adverse effects, promote healing and overcome associated lameness one week after a single application. We now plan to show in a large farm trial that there is a convincing case on the grounds of treatment effectiveness, animal welfare and economics for the adoption of our liquid bandages by the dairy farming community, worldwide, for the management of digital dermatitis.