IT’S a magical liquid 100 times stronger than penicillin in combating bacteria — and it comes ready-made in a pouch. Scientists have found that wallaby milk could be nature’s greatest elixir for fighting disease.

Doctors believe that an ingredient in the milk that protects joeys — wallaby babies — from infection in their mother’s pouch until they are old enough to develop antibodies could one day shield humans from antibiotic-resistant hospital superbugs such as MRSA.

The question of how to milk a wallaby will not, however, arise. If it could be bottled, it would, no doubt, leap off the shelves. Instead the scientists plan to synthesise its elements as a medicine.

Australian researchers found the ingredient almost by accident during a clinical investigation using DNA testing that was aimed at improving the health benefits and efficacy of cows’ milk.

The scientists at the Victorian government’s department of primary industries in Melbourne decided to investigate the milk from the Tammar wallaby because they knew it contained a lot of protein.

Ben Cocks, the research director, said: “The wallaby is born very small after about a month’s gestation. They are really a foetus outside the womb and their immune system is very underdeveloped. They don’t have the ability to make antibodies until they are 100 days old and yet they manage to avoid infection.

“During this time the baby joeys rely on their mother’s milk and we decided to look at the milk in this early phase. We identified a factor that has remarkable antimicrobial activity against a number of human illnesses.”

The researchers found a novel protein, AGG01, with a wide spectrum of antimicrobial activity. They believe it aids the joey in the pouch in adapting to the environment and resisting potential pathogens.

In tests the factor not only stopped bacteria from growing, like many other antimicrobials, but killed 99% of it. It was found to be effective against E-coli, streptococci, salmonella, candida and a relative of MRSA.

“This is more of a serendipitous finding,” said Cocks. “It turns out there is no equivalent in the cows that we can take out of cows’ milk.

“But the component will be easy and inexpensive to synthesise. Its chemical structure means it is more likely to be more effective if injected rather than swallowed.”

Scientists are working to recreate the ingredient in a synthetic compound that will have to go through human trials before it can be marketed, which could take six years.

Although the Tammar wallaby was the chosen marsupial in the tests, it is believed the same qualities are in the milk of larger kangaroos.

One of Britain’s leading microbiologists welcomed the discovery as a possible breakthrough. Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen university and president of the Society for General Microbiology, said: “It’s novel. We know there are antibacterial qualities in the milk. What is interesting is the apparent strength of it and the number of organisms that perish when exposed to it.”

At Whipsnade Wild Animal Park in Bedfordshire there are about 100 wallabies who roam free on the Dunstable Downs. “We have no reason to milk them,” said a spokeswoman. “If they are producing milk they are doing so for their offspring.

“We wouldn’t know how to milk them. We would have to catch them first.”

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