Establishment of Noninvasive Methods for the Detection ofin Mongolian Gerbils and Application of Main Laboratory Gerbil Populations in China.

Abstract

Identifying(,) infection in animals before and after artificial infection influences the subsequent experiment. We established effective and noninvasive detection methods, including the gastric fluid nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method and theC-urea breath test, which can detectbefore modelinginfection in Mongolian gerbils. We designed a gas collection equipment for gerbils.nested PCR was also performed on gastric fluid, gastric mucosa, duodenal contents, and faeces of gerbils challenged with. Conventionaldetection methods, including rapid urease assay and immunohistochemistry, were compared. Moreover, we assessed the natural infection ofin 135 gerbils that had never been exposed toartificially from the major laboratory gerbil groups in China. In 10infected gerbils, the positive detection results were 100%, 100%, 90%, and 10% in gastric fluid, gastric mucosa, duodenal contents, and faeces with nested PCR, respectively. A rapid urease test performed on gastric mucosa showed that all animals were infected withImmunohistochemical detection and bacteria culture of gastric mucosa samples that were positive by the nested PCR method also confirmed the presence of. 9% (3/35) and 6% (2/31) natural infection rates were found in conventional gerbil groups from the Capital Medical University and Zhejiang Laboratory Animal Center. In conclusion, we established two noninvasivedetection methods that can be performed before modelinginfection, including the gastric fluid nested PCR method and theC-urea breath test.