A survey of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus zooepidemicus, Salmonella spp., Bordetella bronchiseptica and Sendai virus in guinea pig colonies in Japan.

S. pneumoniae, S. zooepidemicus, Salmonella spp., B. bronchiseptica and Sendai virus were examined in a total of 45 guinea pig colonies (17 institutional and 28 breeder's colonies) of Hartley strain, and found to be positive in 6, 3, 5, 20 and 14 colonies, respectively. Sendai virus was highly prevalent among guinea pigs, showing so high rates positive as 80 to 100% of animals obtained from 11 of the 14 contaminated colonies. B. bronchiseptica was also shown to be prevalent within contaminated colonies by indication of rates positive more than 40% of animals examined in 14 of the 20 colonies. Infection rates of other 3 pathogens, however, ranged from lower than 20% to higher than 80% according to colonies. All strains of Salmonella isolated in this survey were identified as S. typhimurium and those of S. pneumoniae as serotype 19F.