A special cabinet was designed to protect the operator, during post-mortem examinations on animals infected with pathogenic organisms, against the risk of enhaling infected material and the surrounding area from becoming contaminated. The cabinet was suitable for small animals including mice and guinea-pigs.

It may be safely stated that anything which Dr A. C. Houston writes on the subject of water bacteriology is received with very great interest and respect, and his recent report on the bacteriological characters of Bacillus coli in raw, stored and filtered river water (Metropolitan Water Board, 7th Report on Research Work) is no exception to the rule. The report is of very great interest to all engaged in the study of water bacteriology, particularly in England. We who are working on this subject in a tropical country have different conditions around us, and we naturally look at things from a somewhat different standpoint, so that a brief description of our experience, and a criticism of Dr Houston's results in the light of our ideas will probably be of interest to many who are engaged in this fascinating subject.

The following conclusions were drawn from these experiments with bovine group B streptococci:

1. A relationship existed between lethal power and the number of living organisms inoculated, and, therefore, the number of living organisms inoculated must be determined when the killing power of a strain is under investigation.

2. Equal doses of the same strain were likely to kill more mice, but less rapidly, when inoculated intravenously than when inoculated intraperitone-ally.

3. Virulence for mice might be related to serological type.

4. The disease caused by intraperitoneal inoculation of strain S 13 was a rapidly fatal peritonitis with concomitant bacteraemia.

5. The disease caused by intravenous inoculation of strain S13 was a fatal bacteraemia with a tendency for the streptococci to form dense clumps in widely separated tissues.

Natural aerosols of rabbit pox virus produced by groups of infected rabbits were sampled with a slit and Andersen sampler using an adhesive surface sampling technique (Thomas, 1970). The higher rate of successful recoveries of airborne virus compared with a previous report is believed to be due to the much larger volume of air sampled by this technique and to the processing of the whole of the sample collected by the direct addition of a cell suspension to demonstrate the presence of viable virus.

Different strains of Shigella sonnei present in Dundee from 1971 to 1976 were identified by a ‘multiple typing’ method in which resistotyping, used as the main method of differentiation, was supplemented by colicine typing, antibiogram testing and biotyping. At least 19 different ‘multiple types’ (MTs) were identified by combining information from the four typing techniques. The relation of the different types and their possible derivation from each other are discussed.

The practical value of multiple typing was demonstrated in a study of 247 isolates, of three distinct MTs, recovered from 178 persons involved in an extended outbreak centred primarily on day nurseries.

A few episodes that yielded isolates of different resistotypes were analysed to determine whether the cultures were: isolates of the same strain different in resistotype as a result of in vivo or in vitro variation of resistotype characters, or isolates of distinct strains of different resistotypes.

The multiple typing approach clarified the way in which different MTs emerged, persisted, disappeared or co-existed in the community during the 6 years of the study.

Twenty-one patients considered to have acute poststreptococcal glomerulo-nephritis were encountered during 35 years of general practice. In ten of them good evidence of active streptococcal infection at the time of discovery of nephritis was recorded. The more complete the data the more convincing was the evidence of active infection.

In over half of those whose urines were routinely cultured pathogens were isolated and over a third were treated for infection of the urinary tract. Such infections were associated with adverse effects and prolonged illness.

As compared with children, adults in general had a longer history of ill-health, were less likely to present with acute infections and more likely to have urinary tract infections and prolonged illness.

Vigorous antistreptococcal treatment was followed by rapid recovery in those patients so treated whose illnesses were not complicated by urinary tract infections.

Concurrent streptococcal infection and secondary infection of the urinary tract may contribute more to the onset of acute poststreptococcal glomerulo-nephritis and to its course than is currently believed.

The importance of pork in the transmission of Salmonella spp. to humans has led to the development of control programmes worldwide. For this, knowledge on the epidemiology of the infection in the production system is fundamental to the efficacy of the regulations. Our objective was to determine the prevalence and spatial distribution of Salmonella-infected farms in the central region of Argentina, and to identify the predominant serotypes and epidemiological factors associated with an increased risk of infection. Salmonella was isolated from 22 of 52 sampled farms, for a farm prevalence of 42·3% (95% confidence interval 28·4–56·1). The most frequent serotypes isolated were S. Typhimurium and S. Derby, which have often been considered of public health concern in the region. Limited evidences of global and local clustering in the region under study were found, and the type of feed and presence of diarrhoeic pigs were significantly associated with having Salmonella shedders in the farm. This highlights the need to evaluate microbiological controls at the farm level, and demonstrates the usefulness of the spatial tools to identify areas of greatest risk when processing pork at slaughterhouse, which could contribute to increasing the food safety of pork products.

Observations on the circulation of influenza viruses in Northern Greece during the winters of 1972/3 to 1982/3 are presented.

Influenza A viruses were detected every winter with the exception of those of 1973/4 and 1981/2, when neither type A nor type B was isolated. The strains of type A isolated during the study period were similar to those circulating world-wide over the same time scale.

Influenza B viruses were isolated only during the winters of 1972/3 and 1979/80; influenza A viruses were also circulating in the community at those times. The B strains detected were similar to those recorded world-wide during the period of study.

During 1977 and 1978, 172 samples from 14 batches of domestic meat waste were examined for the presence of salmonellae. Each batch was derived from the domestic refuse collected from approximately 120 houses. Thirty-five strains of ten salmonella serotypes were isolated from 32 samples from 8 batches. The probable origin of these serotypes and their significance when domestic waste is exposed to predation by birds and animals on refuse tips is discussed.

Epidemiological data regarding group A streptococcal (GAS) infections in South East Asia are scarce with no information from Laos. We characterized emm types, emm clusters and the antibiotic resistance profile of 124 GAS isolates recovered in Laos during 2004–2013. Most strains were recovered from skin and invasive infections (76% and 19%, respectively). Thirty-four emm types were identified as belonging to 12 emm clusters and no novel emm types were identified. No significant differences were observed in the distribution of emm types or emm clusters according to age or site of recovery (skin or invasive infections). There was moderate strain diversity in this country but considerable differences in emm-type distribution between Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. Vaccine coverage was high for the J8 vaccine candidate. The theoretical coverage for the 30-valent vaccine candidate needs further investigation. Antibiotic resistance was moderate to erythromycin and chloramphenicol (8% and 7%, respectively) and low to ofloxacin (<1%).

During the discussion of a paper presented by the author to the Society for Water Treatment and Examination at Sheffield in 1952, it was noted that several water bacteriologists were confirming, with a high degree of success, presumptive positive tubes in the coliform test as Bacterium coli type I after incubation for 6 hr. only in MacConkey broth at 44° C. (Taylor, 1952).

In previous reports (vol. vi. p. 470 and vol. vii. p. 421), we described several series of experiments the results of which went to show that fleas and fleas alone were the transmitting agents of the infection of plague. It will be remembered that these experiments were carried out in a series of small godowns, the construction of which has been described in detail. The animals employed in the majority of previous experiments were guinea-pigs, though a limited number of experiments were carried out with monkeys. Gottschlich (Kolle and Wassermann's Handbuch der Pathogenen Mikroorganismen, Suppl. vol. ii., 1907, p. 52) considers that the results obtained with guineapigs cannot be applied to rats as the latter animals, unlike guineapigs, feed on the carcases of their dead companions. Gottschlich while admitting that fleas may transmit the disease from rat to rat considers this method of spread to be of only subsidiary importance. He is of opinion that, among rats, plague is chiefly spread by the healthy animals feeding on the carcases of the plague infected. In order to examine the validity of these criticisms we decided to repeat the godown experiments using wild Bombay rats instead of guinea-pigs.

When complaints of cold feet are made in rooms with concrete floors, there is a tendency amongst people to attribute the discomfort directly to the concrete. It is, of course, obvious that to a bare foot concrete feels very much colder than a cork or wood surface; but it is not so apparent how a floor of comparatively high thermal conductivity such as concrete can appreciably affect the feelings of warmth when the feet are shod. Even the light footwear usually worn by women, being composed of more than one layer of material, must offer considerable resistance to heat loss. In addition, the area of the sole of the shoe in actual contact with the floor is small.

We investigated a possible outbreak of H. pylori in a rural Northern Plains community. In a cross-sectional survey, we randomly sampled 244 households from a geocoded emergency medical system database. We used a complex survey design and global positioning system units to locate houses and randomly selected one eligible household member to administer a questionnaire and a 13C-urea breath test for active H. pylori infection (n = 166). In weighted analyses, active H. pylori infection was detected in 55·0% of the sample. Factors associated with infection on multivariate analysis included using a public drinking-water supply [odds ratio (OR) 12·2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2·9–50·7] and current cigarette smoking (OR 4·1, 95% CI 1·7–9·6). People who lived in houses with more rooms, a possible indicator of decreased crowding in the home, were less likely to have active H. pylori infections (OR 0·7, 95% CI 0·5–0·9 for each additional room).

It has been proposed that inhibitory substances produced by viridans streptococci colonizing the upper respiratory tract aid in cradication of established group A streptococcal colonization of that site. We studied the prevalence of inhibitory-substance producing strains of Streptococcus salivarius in throat cultures from three groups of children: 16 children with persistently positive throat cultures for group A streptococci despite receiving recommended therapeutic courses of antibiotics (group I). 26 children from whom group A streptococci were eradicated from the upper respirator tract by antibiotic therapy (group II). and 18 children who never harboured group A streptococci in their upper respiratory tract during the study period (group Ill). An vitro deferred antagonism method was employed to detect inhibitory substances: 5233 strains of S. salivarius were examined. Strains of S. salivarius producing inhibitory substances were isolated from 76−88% of the children in each group on at least one occasion.However, only a small percentage of subjects in each group harboured strains producing these substances in every throat culture. The mean total percentage of S. salivarius strains producing inhibitory substances was 21·8% in children in group 1·22.4 % in children in group II. and 16.4% in children in group III: these percentages were not statistically different (P > 0·1). In this study, we could not confirm a significant role for inhibitory substances produced byS. salivarius in the eradication of group A streptococci from the upper respiratory tract of colonized individuals.

Although plague broke out in India in 1896, it was not until a period of 18 years had elapsed that it reached Ceylon, notwithstanding the close proximity and the daily intercourse which takes place between the two countries. It is not surprising that this prolonged immunity, coupled with the example of the failure of the disease to thrive in such places as Madras, Singapore and other maritime towns within the tropical belt, should have created in the minds of the public in Colombo a feeling of considerable security as regards invasion by this disease, and that when it was announced that plague had at last broken out, there was the usual scepticism expressed as to the accuracy of the diagnosis. The advent of plague in Ceylon has already been announced by Castellani and Philip (1914).

The ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen (RESA), is one of the falciparum malaria vaccine candidates rarely studied in Brazil. Fieldwork logistics to conduct serology studies is simplified when eluates from whole blood dried on filter paper can be used. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the inter-test reliability for the anti-RESA ELISA-based indices using eluates from filter paper and from serum samples. The study population consisted of 210 individuals (Brazil) from whom matched samples were collected. Anti-RESA ELISA-based index means (±S.D.) were 15.29% (±28.13%) for filter paper and 11.79% (±23.67%) for serum samples. The intra-class correlation coefficient was estimated to be 82.38%, indicating high test reliability. However, there was a significant tendency for filter paper test results to have higher values than serum sample test results (P<0.001). Explanations for this finding may be the presence of haemoglobin in the eluates from filter paper, which may interfere with ELISA testing.

The conglutinating complement fixation test was compared with the haemolytic complement fixation test for the detection of brucella antibodies in human sera. Conglutinating-complement-fixation antibodies were detectable during the early stages of acute brucellosis and persisted for approximately 1 year after the infection.

Hitherto, detection of lymphoproliferative disease virus (LPDV), a C-type retrovirus of turkeys, has proved difficult since no tissue culture or serological assay has been available. Development of serological tests has been hampered by the problems of raising virus-specific antisera. An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is reported, using a viral antiserum raised with bromelain-digested virus.

The assay specifically detected purified virus at a concentration of 250 ng/ml or greater. In an experiment to detect virus in plasma from turkeys over a period of 4 weeks following LPDV infection, ELISA results correlated closely with the viral reverse transcriptase activity. Both assays were of similar sensitivity and detected small amounts of virus in high-speed pellets of turkey plasma. Evidence is presented indicating that LPDV-infected or hyperimmunized turkeys do not produce readily detectable circulating viral antibodies. In reciprocal ELISA tests, using antibodies to group-specific antigens of other avian retrovirus groups (avian sarcoma-leukosis (ASLV) and reticuloendotheliosis (REV)) no antigenic cross-reaction was found between LPDV, ASLV and REV.

A survey of the staphylococcal infections occurring in a general hospital over a period of four and a half years showed that multiple-resistant strains of phage type 77 were endemic in the medical and surgical wards. Strains of this phage type were uncommon among patients attending the casualty department, and those found were usually either fully sensitive to antibiotics or resistant to benzyl-penicillin only. Regular monitoring of patients admitted to the intensive-care unit showed that 58 % of staphylococcal infections in such patients were present at the time of admission to the unit. Although the wards thus constituted a significant reservoir of infection for the intensive-care unit, there was no evidence to suggest that the return of patients from the unit to the wards was responsible for the transfer of infection in the opposite direction. The possibility of reducing the numbers of multiple-resistant staphylococci in the general wards, by the screening of all new admissions for the presence of tetracycline-resistant strains, appears to be impracticable in this area.