Establishment of specific pathogen-free guinea-pig colonies using limited-flora guinea-pigs associated with conventional guinea-pig flora, and monitoring of their cecal flora.
Six groups of limited flora (LF) Hartley guinea-pigs were produced by inoculation of hysterectomy-derived GF guinea-pigs with various combinations of cecal bacteria of conventional (CV) guinea-pigs to determine the effective bacterial cocktails for the establishment of a specific pathogen free (SPF) colony. Bifidobacterium magnum (Bif) isolated from CV guinea-pigs was used for pretreatment. The mortality of LF guinea-pigs inoculated with only Bif was 75%, and that of those inoculated with Bif plus chloroform-treated cecal suspension (CHF) or Bif plus CHF plus 32 isolates from CV guinea-pigs was 40 to 66.7%. These three groups were in an unhealthy condition with mucoid enteritis-like diarrhea. However, the mortality of LF guinea-pigs inoculated with the anaerobic growth on EG plates injected with 10(-5) dilution of cecal contents (CF) or inoculated with Bif plus CF was 6.3 and 15%, respectively. These latter two groups of LF guinea-pigs were transferred to separate barrier rooms and some of the LF guinea-pigs were maintained in isolators as a source of intestinal flora for SPF guinea-pigs. The composition of cecal flora of LF guinea-pigs was stable for a long time, and bacteroidaceae and peptococcaceae were maintained as predominant components. The basic composition of the cecal flora of SPF guinea-pigs originated from LF guinea-pigs, which consists mainly of the anaerobic bacteria, was not changed over a long period, and the flora composition became similar to that in CV guinea-pigs. Guinea-pig-specific pathogens from the SPF colonies were not detected during experiments.
Yanabe
M
M
Japan SLC, Inc., 95-10 Aoi-cho, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 433-8111, Japan.
Shibuya
M
M
Gonda
T
T
Asai
H
H
Tanaka
T
T
Sudou
K
K
Narita
T
T
Matsui
T
T
Itoh
K
K
D000818:Animals; D001407:Bacillus / Q000254:growth & development; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000254:growth & development; D001438:Bacteroidaceae / Q000254:growth & development; D001644:Bifidobacterium / Q000254:growth & development; D002432:Cecum / Q000382:microbiology*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000382:microbiology; D006168:Guinea Pigs / Q000382:microbiology*; D010459:Peptococcaceae / Q000254:growth & development; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D013291:Streptococcus / Q000254:growth & development