Sterilization of Laboratory Animal Diets by Gamma Radiation I. Breeding of Barrier-sustained Animals with Irradiated Diets

Abstract

The pellets sterilized by gamma radiation were tested for breeding of barrier-sustained rats. Sterilization was sufficiently achieved by an exposure of the pellets to 3 Mrad. The rats fed the pellets exposed to 3 Mrad showed a reasonbly reproducibility and their offsprings which were fed the same pellets grew well as compared to the animals given autoclaved pellets, although exposure of the pellets to 6 Mrad affects parturition rate and litter size significantly.