[Enteritis salmonellae in man and animal from 1953 to 1975 in Southern Bavaria (author's transl)]

Abstract

The present paper gives a survey of the enteritis salmonelloses in man during the years from 1953 to 1975 (19400 first isolations) and in animals in the period from 1965 to 1975 (4600 first isolations and identification) in Southern Bavaria. In Southern Bavaria the number of isolations from enteritis salmonellae in man and animal has strongly increased during the last few years and the same holds good for the number of serotypes (Figs. 1, 2 and tables 1, 2). The most frequent serotypes in man are S. typhi-murium, S. enteritidis, S. panama, and S. thompson; in animals they are S. typhimurium, S. abortus-ovis, S. infantis, S. enteritidis and S. dublin. Now as before, most isolations in man and animal occur in late summer or in autumn, especially in september. From 59 group infections in man, only in 21 cases could the source, but not the origin, be gathered from the records. In view of the short incubation time of salmonella enteritis and its prevalent incidence in medically controlled installations this is ununderstandable and critical. As to the regional distribution of the salmonelloses, the incidence in man is higher in the uban areas, in animals in rural areas. For more details please refer to the cartograms and tables (Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8). The regional distributions were analysed under various epidemiological aspects. Thus it was found that roughly a quarter of the salmonella infections in man can be assumed to originate from animals. This is probably due to the fact that selective investigations are missing, although quite frequently in a year far more salmonellae are isolated from animals than from man in some rural districts. Also the present restriction of the inspections to diseased animals is completely inadequate and this is born out by the results obtained e.g. in the Netherlands where animals are slaughtered indiscriminately. The conclusion to be drawn from this and the inadequate entries for samples sent in for analysis is that the health authorities must accelerate and intensify their selective enquiries about the identification and control of the source of infection. This applies particularly to the cooperation with factory physicians and veterinarians.