Salinomycin is a monocarboxylic acid polyether animal specific antibiotic that has strong inhibitory and killing effects on most Gram positive bacteria and various coccidia. It is not easy to develop drug resistance and cross resistance, and is excreted quickly with extremely low residue. When used in pigs, it can prevent and treat diarrhea, promote growth, and improve survival rate. It is mainly used in poultry to prevent coccidia. American researchers have discovered a compound that can "target" and kill cancer stem cells, During the laboratory study, its efficacy in killing breast cancer stem cells in mice was 100 times higher than that of the common anti-cancer drug Taxol. Salinomycin can not only kill breast cancer stem cells in mice, but also inhibit them from producing new tumor cells, and also slow down the growth rate of existing tumors.
Chicken coccidiosis caused by Eimeria infection can lead to poultry death, poor growth, and decreased production performance, seriously endangering the intensive poultry farming industry. At the same time, coccidiosis can also increase susceptibility to other pathogens. At present, the control of coccidiosis mainly involves adding preventive anti coccidiosis drugs to feed or drinking water, and the coccidiosis vaccine is still in an auxiliary role. Salinomycin, as a type of polyether ion carrier drug, has been widely used in the aquaculture industry due to its advantages such as wide anti coccidian spectrum, unique mode of action, and low susceptibility to drug resistance. However, four years after the drug was launched, the emergence of drug-resistant strains has been reported in various regions.