Effect of desalivation and age on susceptibility to infection by Streptococcus sobrinus

The influence of desalivation and age on susceptibility to infection by Streptococcus sobrinus was studied using 80 Sprague-Dawley female rats weaned at age 21 days. Forty animals (donors) were infected with S. sobrinus 6715 (ATCC 27352), formed into ten groups of 4, fed diet 2000, and offered 10% sucrose water ad libitum. The remaining 40 animals were fed laboratory chow and sterile distilled water until introduced into the experiment. When the animals were aged 25 days, 10 noninfected animals were anesthetized, desalivated, and caged with 10 infected (donor) animals (group I). On day 36 these procedures were repeated on the remaining animals (group II). Infection was checked daily. Animals were regarded as infected when S. sobrinus was detected on 2 consecutive days and confirmed 1 week later. Animals were killed, jaws dissected, and populations of S. sobrinus and total bacterial viable count of each jaw estimated. The average number of days from pairing to detecting infection (2 consecutive days) was as follows: group I (age 25 days): desalivated 5.4 (SD 2.5), intact 8.8 (SD 4.5); group II (age 36 days): desalivated 7.8 (SD 2.9). Only 3 intact animals became infected in group II after a total elapsed time of 21 days. The mean viable counts of S. sobrinus per jaw in group 1 were as follows: desalivated 3.6 x 10(6) (SD 4.1); donor cagemate 13.0 x 10(6) (SD 9.7); intact 0.26 x 10(6) (SD 0.39); donor cagemate 4.5 x 10(6) (SD 4.3). Desalivated animals tended to be more heavily infected than intact animals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)