A comparison of human and animal mouth flora.
Human bite injuries are often believed to be more serious than animal bite injuries. One reason for this distinction might be a species difference in the microbial mouth flora. In order to compare this possibility, we cultured the mouths of humans, dogs, and cats. Human oral flora contained the smallest number of bacteria followed by dog and cat oral flora, respectively. Veillonella parvula was cultured from all humans and was also found in dog and cat mouths, but less frequently. V parvula is not usually considered a virulent organism but occasionally may become a pathogen and should not be overlooked especially following human bite injury.
Rayan
G M
GM
University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City.
Downard
D
D
Cahill
S
S
Flournoy
D J
DJ
D000818:Animals; D001420:Bacteria, Aerobic / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001733:Bites and Stings / Q000382:microbiology; D001734:Bites, Human / Q000382:microbiology; D002415:Cats; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004285:Dogs; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology*