Fifty years of faecal microbiota transplant in Central Australia

I read with interest the recent work of Zuo et al and Cammarota et al on faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT).1 2 The past half-decade has seen a salvo of interest into FMT and its potential uses outside the treatment of Clostridium difficile colitis.1–4 Anecdotally, FMT is traced back to a treatment favoured by Pliny the Elder and a technique used in Chinese Medicine since antiquity.3 It is of interest that, although only recently accepted into mainstream practice, FMT is a well-tested empirical method for wildlife carers in the Central Australian Desert.

Cynthia Lynch is a former Remote Area Nurse with over 50 years experience in Cape York and Northern Territory communities. Currently, Cynthia manages a wildlife hospital in Alice Springs caring for kangaroo joeys who have lost their mothers to meat hunting. Joeys frequently present with life-threatening...

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