Rodent excreta

Note lf more than 20% of the subsamples contain rodent, excreta or whole insects, or an average of 3mg/lb of mammalian excreta, the lot must be reconditioned. 

Extraneous material, filth, insect fragments, rodent hairs, rodent excreta... 

Crude papain, obtained as the dried exudate of the fruit and leaves of Caricapapaya L., Cari-caceae, Is usually found to have been contaminated during collection, drying, or storage by insects, rodent hair and excreta, botanical plant parts, sand, etc. and may thereby become further contaminated by harmful bacteria and enteric organisms. 

Filthy conditions, due to rodent or insect population, may be observed in a grain warehouse. The inspector notes rat-chewed flour sacks and sacks contaminated with rat excrement. He removes a sample of sacking and flour from such contaminated areas and submits them to the analyst. Urine fluoresces under ultraviolet light. Where rodent urine is to be confirmed, the xanthydrol test is one of several that may be used. Excreta pellets may be moistened with water or an appropriate clearing solution and crushed for observation under the compound microscope. The presence of striated hair fragments indicates rodent excrement. 

It is a hantavirus that is normally found in the former Yugoslavia. The natural reservoirs are small rodents and the virus is shed in their urine. Infection occurs after inhalation of dust contaminated with excreta from infected rodents or from aerosol of animal blood or fluids. Does not produce disease in animals. This is a biosafety level 3 agent. 

Maintenance and environmental control. While diet, breathing, temperature, and waste removal are virtually taken for granted in most rodent work, they form serious problems with aquatic animals. Knowledge of dietary requirements and prepared diets generally are nonexistent for most species oxygen must be supplied and toxic gases removed temperature maintenance and water composition are very important and the decay of food waste and excreta must be avoided. 

Contact with infected rodents or their excreta. Vectors for Ebola and Marburg are unknown. 

Stored plant drugs are often found to be contaminated by rat and mice hairs, urine and faeces. Infested drugs are not recognised as official by the British Pharmacopoeia which states in the General Notices that Vegetable drugs are required to be free from insects and other animal matter and from animal excreta . Insects and rodent hairs (an indicator of rodent faecal contamination) can be recovered by preferential wetting of their exoskeletons by paraffin. Microscopical examination can establish the type of insect or rodent involved. 

Two studies discuss the acute absorption of radiolabeled maneb in rodents. The first study (Brocker and Schlatter 1979) used unfasted adult female rats dosed with [ " Mnjmaneb at a dose of 4-10 mg/kg. The rats were kept in metabolism cages which allowed the collection of respired air, urine, and feces for several hours post-dosing. The maneb was given alone or in conjunction with different metal compounds. Radioanalysis of excreta and selected tissues revealed that at 72 hours post-dosing, only 4-6% of the radioactivity was retained in the body with the majority of the label located within the liver and kidney. For 2 different chemical preparations of maneb, the recovery of label in feces was 94-96%, with the remainder in the urine. The respired air of two rats contained only 0.24 and 0.60% of the label, respectively. When molar excesses of the chloride salts of zinc, copper, iron, and mercury were added with the maneb. 

Metabolic studies with progesterone-2l-C in rodents showed that approximately 10% of the radioactivity was expired as CO2. About 80% of the radioactivity was in the combined excreta and the majority of this in the feces. In bile fistula animals the radioactivity was in the bile this suggests that most of the fecal activity was introduced into the intestines of the normal animals by way of the bile. However, one must again be reminded of species variation, and it is apparent that much work remains to be done in this important area. 

There can be many types of extraneous matter but in general the micro-analytical test is mainly directed to the determination of rodent hairs, and of insect, mould and other fragments. If rodent hairs are found there is likely to be contamination with excreta since rodent faeces always contain a mass of rodent hair. There is a limit to the implications of the test, but while there is no direct evidence of harm to health from the presence of faecal matter, such contamination is most undesirable. 

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