The usage of bacteria Streptococcus mutans as rat’s incisors fragility agent

Abstract

Rat incisors keep growing along with their life since there is no hole at the base of the incisor. The elongation of rat incisors can be controlled by rodent through gnawing activity. It may lead to several disadvantages, such as crop and furniture damages and even transmit some diseases to human. Rat teeth are also strong, therefore it can destroy hard objects. This research aimed to test bacteria Streptococcus mutans as rat’s incisor fragility agent. S. mutans suspensions were made into 4 different concentrations: control, 3x104, 3x106 and 3x108 cfu/mL. Each concentration was applied to the rats for 4 and 8 d, consecutively. The variables observed in this test were the hardness of the rat incisors and feed consumption. The result showed that the hardness of rat incisors and grain consumption were decreasing in all concentrations. The treatment indicated that the longer the bacteria infected rat incisors, the more fragile the incisors were. It affected their grain consumption as it was decreasing until 59.42% while their pellet consumption was increasing.