Campylobacteriosis in Laboratory Rats

Abstract

The thermophilic campylobacters are the most common cause of human acute bacterial enteritis. Their pathogenicity in other animals is debatable but campylobacter related diarrhoea has been reported in dogs, cats, cattle, sheep, pigs, ferrets, rabbits, monkeys etc. However the organism is ubiquitous in the environment and it is likely that immunity stimulated by repeated exposure in young animals, confounds studies of the prevalence of disease. Many attempts have been made to establish small laboratory models of campylo-bacterosis for pathogenicity studies¹. However, in the experience of most workers, although rodents become colonised, disease is rarely seen. The reasons for this are unknown. Species specificity in disease manifestation, i.e. absence of appropriate receptors for toxins, is one possibility but the previous use of inappropriate strains seems a more likely explanation for this anomaly. Recently an outbreak of enteritis has been observed in young rats apparently associated with campylobacter infection. This outbreak provided a unique opportunity to investigate the pathogenic potential of campylobacter strains in a natural disease model.