Occurrence of megasphaera elsdenii in faecal samples of young pigs.

Important numbers of Megasphaera elsdenii, known as a normal inhabitant of the rumen of cattle and sheep were recently cultured from intestinal contents of man and pigs. Studying the occurrence of this organism in faecal contents of pigs, we paid attention to the use of a strict anaerobic isolating and counting technique. It was demonstrated that Megasphaera elsdenii is a strict anaerobic organism. Exposure to air during 15 minutes caused an important decrease of the colony count. Comparison of the biochemical properties of some isolates with the data of other investigators is given. Pigs isolates were nearly similar to rumen strains.