Question

3. What are gnotobiotic animals? Explain how they can be used in the study of microbial flora and interactions with a host.

Answer 1

Hi Answer:

Q.3. What are gnotobiotic animals? Explain how they can be used in the study of microbial flora and interactions with a host.

Answer: The gnotobiotic animals are those animals in which only certain bacterial or other microbial strains are present. They are also known as the germ- free animals as the exact status and microflora of these animals is known.

The gnotobiotic animals are used to study the host –microbial relationship or interactions. As defined above that these animals have pure microflora and we can use these animals as experimental models to examine the effect of some another microbial strain on them. The following experiments can be performed on these animals to check the host microbial interactions:

1.    To study the effect of another microbial strain on host’s nutrition, digestion, and metabolism mechanism.

2.    Study the effect of microbial species on the various organs and organs systems of the host such as cardiovascular system, digestive system.

3.    To study the host body immune responses in the presence of particular microbial strains.

In addition to this these animals are used as the experimental models to examine the effect of various antibiotics and other drugs.