摘要：Five adult rabbits were surgically implanted with caecal cannulae and housed in isolation to prevent subsequent bacterial infection. Following challenge with clindamycin, they were given an oral dose of toxigenic Clostridium spiroforme. Caecal samples were collected at regular intervals via the cannulae and at that time the health of each animal was noted. The pH of each sample, the numbers of C. spiroforme and the titre of its iota toxin were measured. We observed a rise in all these parameters correlating with the increasing seventy of clinical signs typical of the natural disease in recently weaned rabbits. From oral challenge to death, the time span of the experimental disease lasted about 30 h. Over this time the caecal pH rose from a range of 6.4 to 6.9 to an upper level of pH 8.4 to 8.9; toxin titres rose from zero to a level ranging from 1 : 32 to 1 : 64. Numbers of C. spiroforme rose from less than 102 spores/g wet wt to 105.1 to 107.1. In all but one rabbit, C. spiroforme was the only clostridium isolated in the final stages of the disease.Keywords: Clostridium spiroforme; Animal model; Rabbit diarrhoea; Enterotoxaemia; Caecum; Cannula.
