Recently, an attention of many investigators has been drawn to the difference between Salmonella paratyphi-B and Salmonella java. This increased interest in these two serovars is due to repeated isolation of the Java form of Salmonella from blood cultures of febrile patients. S. java had been designated to d-tartrate positive and no slime wall producing cultures possessing the same antigenic formula as that of S. paratyphi-B. The reason of distinguishing S. java from S. paratyphi-B was, as a rule, that the former produces gastroenteritis, while the latter causes a typhoid-like clinical picture. It had been suggested that S. java might be some serovar (s) of the Salmonella B group to which H-antigen b had been transduced. The present investigation was carried out to discriminate the propriety of distinguishing S. java from S. paratyphi-B using 192 recent isolates.
The 192 cultures possessed as antigenic formula 1, 4, 5, 12: b: 1, 2 and no monophasic cultures of the phase 1 H-antigen were included. When they were tested for d-tartrate fermentation by themethod of Kauffmann-Petersen, slime wall formation, and utilization of acetate as a sole carbon source, the 192 cultures were divided into 8 biovars. Of the 192 cultures, 39.6% and 40.6% were of typical S. paratyphi-B showing d-tartrate negative and slime wall positive properties and S. java giving d-tartrate positive and slime wall negative behaviors, respectively. However, the remaining 20% of the cultures were of intermediate biovars which could not be distinguished which.
Sources of the 192 cultures were contrasted to their ability to ferment d-tartrate. Not only d-tartrat negative cultures but also d-tartrate positive strains were found to originate in enteric fever, although the most of the both cultures were of isolates from patients with diarrheal illness, healthy persons, domestic animals, and surface water. Thus, no differences of pathogenicity and clinical picture of infection were detected between dtartrate positive and negative biovars of the cultures investigated.
The 192 cultures possessed as antigenic formula 1, 4, 5, 12: b: 1, 2 and no monophasic cultures of the phase 1 H-antigen were included. When they were tested for d-tartrate fermentation by themethod of Kauffmann-Petersen, slime wall formation, and utilization of acetate as a sole carbon source, the 192 cultures were divided into 8 biovars. Of the 192 cultures, 39.6% and 40.6% were of typical S. paratyphi-B showing d-tartrate negative and slime wall positive properties and S. java giving d-tartrate positive and slime wall negative behaviors, respectively. However, the remaining 20% of the cultures were of intermediate biovars which could not be distinguished which.
Sources of the 192 cultures were contrasted to their ability to ferment d-tartrate. Not only d-tartrat negative cultures but also d-tartrate positive strains were found to originate in enteric fever, although the most of the both cultures were of isolates from patients with diarrheal illness, healthy persons, domestic animals, and surface water. Thus, no differences of pathogenicity and clinical picture of infection were detected between dtartrate positive and negative biovars of the cultures investigated.