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THE NORMAL INTESTINAL FLORA OF THE PIG II. QUANTITATIVE BACTERIOLOGICAL STUDIES
Author(s) -
WILLINGALE JOAN M.,
BRIGGS C. A. E.
Publication year - 1955
Publication title -
journal of applied bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 0021-8847
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1955.tb02085.x
Subject(s) - feces , serial dilution , biology , flora (microbiology) , veterinary medicine , zoology , meal , microbiology and biotechnology , food science , bacteria , medicine , genetics , alternative medicine , pathology
SUMMARY: Faecal and caecal samples from normal pigs were examined and the factors causing variations in bacterial numbers investigated by a dilution count technique. The range of variation for viable counts of faeces from normal pigs was 1.0 × 10 8 ‐9.9 × 10 9 /g and was in sufficiently close agreement with the results obtained with caecal contents to justify the use of faecal counts as an index of caecal numbers. The use of individually‐fed pigs instead of group‐fed pigs, with the consequent reduction of variations in environmental factors, appeared to reduce the variability of the counts. Changes in diet, either by incorporating grass meal or replacing all the animal protein by vegetable protein, did not affect the total numbers of organisms. The small variations in bacterial numbers regarded as significant by some of the earlier workers thus appear to be of little importance. Smears from high dilutions indicated that the predominant organisms were lactobacilli and streptococci; coli‐aerogenes types were present in smaller numbers.