Health monitoring of the of BALB/c mice colony kept in a conventional animal facility

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the health status and environmental conditions of the colony of BALB/c mice maintained in an Animal Facility of the Lauro de Souza Lima Institute. Parasitological and microbiological tests with enriched and selective culture media were used to identify zoonotic and potentially pathogenic agents from skin, hair, respiratory and enteric tracts of the animals and fungal flora of the environment. This study proposed to verify colonization of Mycoplasma sp. and Bordetella sp. in trachea, fungi in skin and hair, as well as perform parasitological examination, Salmonella spp. and enterobacteria isolation from cecum of sampled animals. In addition serum of animals were tested against different viral and bacterial antigens and against Toxoplasma gondii antigen.For environmental monitoring samples were collected from different locations. After macro and microculture, the fungi identified were Cladosporium sp. Acremonium sp., Aspergillus sp., Curvularia sp. and Trichophyton mentagrophytes. Mycological examination of the skin was negative for 100% of the samples. There was no growth of respiratory pathogens or Salmonella spp. The bacteria isolated in the present study consist of the normal enteric microbiota of animals in conventional conditions: Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterobacter cloacae, Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella spp. Providencia stuart and Pseudomonas putida. The parasitological examination showed the presence of Strongyloides stercoralis, Syphacia obvelata, Aspiculuris tetraptera and Ancylostoma sp. Serology resulted negative for all tested antigens. The techniques used in this work showed to be valuable for diagnostic purpose, to assess the health of laboratory animals, as well as for qualitative analysis of environmental fungal microbiota, thus it should be implemented as a routine in the animal house.