Mutagenicities of Fecal Extracts of Various Mammals

Abstract

The objective of our work is to evaluate mutagenicity of feces of various mammals. Aqueous and ethanol extracts were prepared from fresh feces of the dog, cat, rabbit, goat, sheep, pig, cow and monkey, and were examined their mutagenic activities in a system of Escherichia coli B/r WP 2 trp-hcr- and E. coli WP 2 trp- strains. For the detection of tryptophane-independent bacteria, the semi-enriched agar medium was found to be very effective. The aqueous and ethanol extracts of feces of dog, cat and monkey increased the mutagenic frequency with microsomal (S-9) activation. On the other hand, the extracts of feces of rabbit, goat, sheep, pig and cow showed no appreciable mutagenic activity in both strains either presence or absence of S-9 mix in the medium.