Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2009
The lactose-fermenting coliform organisms in milk and dung have been investigated.
A large proportion of those recovered from raw milk by direct plating proved to be of the Bact. aerogenes type and a number of “intermediates” was also present.
In dung faecal Bact. coli largely predominated, the proportion of Bact. aerogenes being very small.
If the implication of these experiments be accepted it is possible that many of the coliform types found in milk are derived, not from faeces, in which the proportion of aerogenes is small, but from external sources, such as contaminated utensils, and from food-stuffs.