Department of Laboratory Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine and KRF Zoonotic Disease Priority Research Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Exp Anim. 2010;59(1):25-33. doi: 10.1538/expanim.59.25.
Regular monitoring of commercial laboratory rodents and institutional research animal residents is essential for microbiological quality control programs. The objective of our study was to investigate the recent prevalence of infectious pathogens in laboratory mice from eight experimental animal vendors and 56 institutional animal facilities in Korea. Our investigation was conducted in 2006-2007. Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) mice from four commercial breeders were clean according to serological, bacteriological, parasitological, and histopathological examination results. However, mice from one intermediate vendor that distributed SPF animals from main commercial vendors to local districts had Syphacia obvelata and Mycoptes musculinus infections. Additionally, mice from conventional animal breeders were highly contaminated. Among the 56 institutional animal facilities, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), Sendai virus and Mycoplasma pulmonis positive results were obtained in 23.2, 8.9, and 1.8% of animals tested, respectively. These results indicate that quarantine and eradication efforts of infectious pathogens in these facilities are sub-optimal and need to be improved. The use of commercial conventional mice for research should be eliminated and appropriate vendor selection as well as thorough quarantine before releasing animals into a facility are needed. Finally we suggest qualified veterinary experts are needed at each animal facility to ensure an adequate health surveillance program.
定期监测商业实验动物和机构研究动物居民对于微生物质量控制计划至关重要。我们的研究目的是调查韩国 8 家实验动物供应商和 56 家机构动物设施中实验小鼠近期感染性病原体的流行情况。我们的调查于 2006-2007 年进行。根据血清学、细菌学、寄生虫学和组织病理学检查结果，来自 4 家商业繁殖者的特定病原体（SPF）小鼠是清洁的。然而，从一个中间供应商分发 SPF 动物到当地地区的 SPF 动物具有 Syphacia obvelata 和 Mycoptes musculinus 感染。此外，常规动物繁殖者的小鼠污染程度很高。在 56 家机构动物设施中，检测到的动物中分别有 23.2%、8.9%和 1.8%的小鼠感染了鼠肝炎病毒（MHV）、仙台病毒和肺炎支原体。这些结果表明，这些设施中对感染性病原体的检疫和根除工作并不理想，需要改进。应消除使用商业常规小鼠进行研究，并在将动物释放到设施之前选择合适的供应商并进行彻底检疫。最后，我们建议每个动物设施都需要有合格的兽医专家，以确保有足够的健康监测计划。
