GERM-FREE REARING OF RATS

Abstract

For germ-free rearing, rats are delivered by cesarian section at full term in equipment specially designed for the operation and then sluiced over into the main apparatus in such a way as to avoid contamination of the apparatus or of the animal. The animals are fed by stomach tube on a milk mixture composed according to the best-known analyses of rat''s milk. They have been reared thus to the age of 28 days, and then they become too large for the apparatus. Their growth is good and their growth curves are about the same as those of control animals reared on sterilized food in a non-sterile environment.