The effects of crowding and heat stress on the intestinal flora, body-weight gains, and feed efficiencies of rats and chickens as well as the effects of the administration of probiotics on the animals under stress were introduced. Irrespective of the type of stress and host species, the change of intestinal flora caused by stress showed almost the common tendency: when the animal suffered stress, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Corynebacterium, and Enterobacteriaceae commonly increased; when the stress was more severe, sometimes Peptococcaceae, Bacteroidaceae, and Clostridium also increased or Lactobacillus reduced. Body-weight gains and feed efficiencies were markedly suppressed under these stress conditions. Administering Lactobacillus to a chicken under heat stress improved its hypoplasia while administration of Bifidobacterium improved the feed efficiency and intestinal flora.
Acknowledgments. We thank R. Harasawa of the Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Miyazaki University, and Y. Yoshitake of Toyo Jozo Co., Ltd., for cooperation with these investigations. We also thank A. Ozaki and T. Oowada of this Institute for their assistance in the care of the animals, and K. Sakamoto of Nippon Kayaku Co., Ltd., for his assistance in preparation of the manuscript. The supplying of Bifidobacterium probiotics from Dr. T. Kawashima, Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd., is gratefully acknowleged.
These works were supported by research grants from the Science and Technology Agency of the Japanese Government.

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A 5-year-old girl with severe aplastic anemia received a bone marrow transplantation. The transplant was rejected and the patient died of invasive aspergillosis and septicemia due to Enterobacter cloacae. The sequential quantitative fecal flora study demonstrated suppression of all groups of intestinal flora constituents to less than 10²/g of feces immediately after initiation of total decontaminative measures. An overgrowth of yeast was observed after 10 days at a level of 10⁷/g feces, despite continual oral antibiotic use. Aspergillus was also isolated at a level of 10²/g feces. The overgrowth seemed to be related to the occurrence of invasive aspergillosis in the patient. The partial decontamination utilizing narrow-spectrum antimicrobials, which preserves the colonization resistance of the normal intestinal flora, might be superior to the traditional practice of total decontamination using oral gentamicin, vancomycin, and nystatin.

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Effects of the intake of a candy containing palatinose and palatinose condensates, in daily dosage of 12 or 24 g for 10 days, on microflora, pH, and water contents in feces were investigated in eight healthy volunteers. The number of bifidobacteria and percentage of the microorganisms to total bacteria were higher during than before or after a period of the candy intake. Remarkable changes of fecal pH and water contents were not observed during a period of the intake.

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