Latent Pasteurella pneumotropica infection of the gnotobiotic and barrier-held rats
Moore, T.D.; Allen, A.M.; Ganaway, J.R.
Laboratory Animal Science 23(5): 657-661
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0023-6764 PMID: 4356333 Document Number: 63034
The organism was isolated from the faeces of rats with diarrhoea rats and also healthy rats and mice, all of which had been obtained by hysterectomy and maintained under barrier conditions; also from the faeces of animals in isolators considered either germfree or gnotobiotic. The contaminant remained undetected in routine bacteriological monitoring of faecel specimens from the barrier until special enrichment in GN broth was performed. Bacteriological examination of 12 apparently normal, female, barrier-held rats revealed that P. pneumotropica was present in all faecal samples, absent from all 12 respiratory tracts, and present in 2 uteri. Following inoculation of this agent into the stomach of germfree rats, colonization of the entire intestinal tract occurred, with the caecum having the largest number of organisms. Isolations were made from the trachea, uterus, and liver only after enrichment. No sign of clinical disease was seen in these rats during a period of 42 days.