ESTABLISHING A DESIGNATED PATHOGEN FREE SWINE COLONY FOR XENOTRANSPLANTATION

摘要

Development of source animal production facilities that are Designated Pathogen Free (DPF) is a crucial step in making xenotransplantation a clinical reality, and meeting FDA guidelines for source animal production. As such, Nextran developed a DPF swine colony in 1999 using methods for producing gnotobiotic animals. Key components in establishing this type of facility were: synchronizing estrus and mating sows using frozen semen, creating a surgical "bubble" that would allow hysterotomy and birth ofpiglets without exposure to the sow, developing appropriate containment procedures and nutrition to raise colostrum-deprived, hysterotomy-derived piglets into breeding stock, and developing an extensive diagnostic regimen for monitoring the disease status of the colony. The overall goal of this procedure was to establish disease free breeding stock for xenotransplantation source animal production.