Effect of milk composition on the gastrointestinal microflora of artificially reared young rabbits

The effect of artificial feeding and diet on the composition and development of digestive microflora was studied from birth to 14 days in young rabbits fed rabbit's milk and a cow milk substitute, respectively. The digestive microflora of those young animals artificially fed with rabbit's milk was comparable to that of rabbits nursed by the dam and artificial feeding caused no problems. The microflora was quantitatively and qualitatively perturbed in the young rabbits fed the cow milk substitute. Bacteria were more rapidly established than in the young nursed by their dam. Moreover, the stomach and small intestine harbored a large number of bacteria comparable to that of the colon (10 7 to 10 9 /g). The facultative anaerobic microflora became dominant at all levels of the digestive tract. Streptococcus and enterobacteria counts ranged between 10! and 10 9 /g at all levels.