Generating Rabbit Model of Bone Infection: A Technique of Inducing Chronic Infection by Injecting Bacteria Directly in Bone Marrow

To set up the bone infection mold, confirm a lack of response to paw pinch in a three-month-old, 3-kilogram male New Zealand white rabbit, and use an electric shaver to remove the hair from the proximal tibial region against the direction of the hair growth. Disinfect the exposed skin with povidone-iodine solution, and use a pen and a ruler to mark the upper end of the tibia, and the drilling hole position for the S. aureus injection, taking care that the drilling hole position is in the horizontal middle of the tibial plateau.

Next, use a #11 scalpel to make an incision in the skin, followed by a 1-centimeter incision in the peritoneum. Using an electric bone drill unit, punch a 2-millimeter diameter hole in the tibia, and press the hole with a 2-millimeter diameter, 2-millimeter long, cylinder of bone wax. Remove any spare bone wax along the horizontal plane of the tibial plateau, and confirm that the hole is full of bone wax.

Then, use absorbable surgical sutures to sew up the periosteum and skin, in a vertical mattress suture to prevent the animal from chewing the stitches, and use a 1-milliliter asepsis injector to slowly inject 1 x 10⁸ CFU/mL of S. aureus solution into the drill hole.