Letters to the Editor

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Dear Sir: We wish to alert our colleagues to a possible hazard in using phenol containing disinfecting agents in laboratory animal facilities. For several years, we have used CBA male mice and routinely perform Mishell-Dutton-type cultures of mouse spleen cells immunized with sheep erythrocytes (SRBC). Our normal anti-SRBC response is around 300 to 500 PFC with a background of around 30 to 40 PFC/106 recovered cells. In November 1975, we inadvertently started using O-Syl (National Laboratories, Lehn & Fink Industrial Products Division of Sterling Drug, Inc., Montvale, N. J. 07645) to disinfect the polypropylene cages in which mice are housed (10 to 15/cage). Cages were disinfected weekly by a mixture of hot water and O-Syl (approximately 10 ml in 10 liters of hot water) and rinsed repeatedly with warm water. By February 1976, the anti-SRBC response in spleen cultures declined to around 60 PFC/106 recovered cells. Shortly thereafter the mice developed a dermatitis.

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