ST. LOUIS — Scientists Tuesday presented a study suggesting that yogurt may prevent the familiar intestinal ailments suffered by travelers on visits to developing countries.
The study, released at the 70th annual meeting of the American Societies for Experimental Biology, was conducted by Anthony D. Hitchins, Frank E. McDonough and Noble P. Wong at an Agriculture Department lab in Beltsville, Md.
The three scientists cautioned that their experiments were carried out on laboratory rats.
``Laboratory rats are, after all, a different species,`` said the study. ``And the laboratory environment is not a natural one.``
But the study said rats fed yogurt exclusively were more resistant to bacteria commonly responsible for intestinal disorders than rats fed the corresponding milk used to make yogurt.
To make their work more applicable to the population in developing countries, the researchers used not milk or yogurt exclusively, but a dietary formulation containing these foods, the study said.
In the first week of the four-week study, the rats were injected with salmonella, a bacteria.
``Weight gain fell by 35 percent in milk-fed infected rats, but only by 15 percent in yogurt-fed rats infected with salmonella,`` the report said.
The study said additional research was necesary to discover why yogurt was advantageous and to learn whether humans will benefit in the same way.