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Institutional Cost Savings and Improved Pathogen Detection by Replacing Sentinel Mice with Environmental Soiled
Maggie L Tu-Wood1, Marcia L Hart2, Robert S Livingston2
11Comparative Medicine Program, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.
Summary
Sentinel-free soiled bedding (SFSB) and direct colony dredging (DCD) offer superior rodent health monitoring over traditional soiled bedding sentinels (SBS). These methods improve pathogen detection and reduce costs, with SFSB being the most efficient and user-friendly option.
Area of Science:
- Comparative analysis of rodent health monitoring techniques.
- Microbiological diagnostics and pathogen detection in laboratory animal colonies.
Background:
- Traditional soiled bedding sentinel (SBS) systems for rodent health monitoring suffer from inconsistent pathogen detection, high costs, and labor intensity.
- Existing methods often rely on live animals, posing ethical and practical challenges.
- Sentinel-free soiled bedding (SFSB) and direct colony dredging (DCD) have emerged as potential alternatives using PCR-based matrices.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of SFSB and DCD methods against SBS for detecting specific rodent pathogens.
- To evaluate the performance of SFSB and DCD in individually-ventilated cage rack systems.
- To determine the most efficient and user-friendly sentinel-free approach for routine health monitoring.
Main Methods:
- Mice housed in individually-ventilated cages were monitored using three methods: SFSB (matrix shaken in composite soiled bedding), DCD (matrix exposed via dredging), and SBS (traditional sentinel animals).
- Pathogen detection was performed using fecal PCR for bacteria and serology for murine norovirus (MNV).
- Ergonomic, workflow, and labor aspects of DCD and SFSB were assessed.
Main Results:
- SBS methods failed to detect multiple targeted bacterial pathogens (Rodentibacter spp., Helicobacter spp.) and showed a 25% failure rate for MNV detection.
- SFSB and DCD matrices successfully detected MNV and all targeted bacterial pathogens, even at low prevalence, though not achieving 100% detection.
- DCD presented challenges in ergonomics, workflow, and labor compared to SFSB.
Conclusions:
- SFSB and DCD offer significantly reduced costs and superior pathogen detection compared to SBS for rodent health monitoring.
- SFSB emerged as the most efficient, user-friendly, and cost-effective method for routine health surveillance in this institutional setting.
- Sentinel-free methods provide a viable and improved alternative to traditional sentinel animal programs.
