[Human salmonellosis and turtles in France]. / Salmonelloses humaines en rapport avec les tortues aquatiques dans le déparement de l'Isère.

Two immunosuppressed children were infected with Salmonella, due to turtles living in water. So we investigated the carriage of Salmonella among those animals. Among the 95 investigated animals, 10 were carrying Salmonella (Arizonae, Rissen, Pomona and Blockley). The water of 6 containers out of 20 contained Salmonella. Comparing our data to others in the litterature, we conclude that human salmonellosis, acquired from turtles are not, by now, a major problem in France. Nevertheless, a number of those animals are carrying Salmonella. So an epidemiological survey is necessary, and immunosuppressed patients should avoid contact with those animals.

Number and distribution of bacteria on some beef carcasses at selected abattoirs in some member states of the European communities.

In seven member countries of the European Communities, three abattoirs were visited on three occasions in each of two surveys and at each visit ten beef carcasses were sampled, before chilling, at defined sites on the neck, brisket, forerib and medially on the round. In Survey I, samples were plated for total viable count (TVC) at 30° (ISO 2293) and Enterobacteriaceae at 37° (ISO 5552); in Survey II only TVCs were made. This paper is confined to analyses of the TVCs in the two surveys. Data from each country were analysed separately as sampling methodology may not have been sufficiently reproducible by different workers to allow between-countries comparison. Variations among visits to particular abattoirs and abattoir × site interactions made comparisons among abattoirs invalid within five of the seven countries. To effectively monitor differences between abattoirs within most countries it would be necessary to make more than three visits to each abattoir. Despite abattoir × site interactions in three countries in Survey I and four countries in Survey II, comparisons between sites were generally valid because of the consistent high contamination of the brisket. In the remainder of countries the abattoir × site interaction was too large to allow valid comparisons between sites. It is recommended that at least three or four sites are sampled in future surveys as only one site per carcass would underestimate the number of more heavily contaminated carcasses.

[Plasmids of incompatibility group H among multiresistant "Salmonella" (author's transl)]. / Plasmides du groupe d'incompatibilité H chez des souches de Salmonella multirésistantes.

A total of 449 multiresistant strains of Salmonella recently isolated from human beings and animals in France and in Belgium and belonging to 21 serotypes, were screened for the presence of IncH R plasmids. These plasmids were identified in 236 strains belonging to 14 different serotypes: mainly S. typhimurium, S. schwarzengrund and S. saint-paul, but not in S. dublin nor S. kedougou. The IncH R plasmids confer resistance to four or more drugs and to tellurium compounds. The properties of 14 plasmids were studied by genetic methods and agarose gel electrophoresis following digestion with EcoRI: they showed a great degree of relatedness.