[Report on Citrobacter strains having antigenic relationship with "E. coli", and their characteristics (author's...

During a research done on the diffusion of enteropathogenic E. coli in a children's community, 24 strains of Citrobacter have been isolated. By agglutination and agar-gel diffusion techniques, they looked to have some somatic antigens in common with those serogroups of enteropathogenic E. coli. The results were as follows: 14 strains were correlated with the serogroup O111; 9 strains with the serogroup O125 and 1 strain with the serogroup O55. The isolation of these strains has been made at the same period when we have found out the E. coli of homologous serogroups, even if they didn't belong to the same subjects. The colicine typing and sensibility to antibiotics tests made both on Citrobacter strains and on E. coli ones of homologous serogroups haven't pointed out other characteristics of identity. Furthermore, antigenic relationships between the 24 strains of Citrobacter and different serogroups of Salmonella have been demonstrated, that is: the strains containing the somatic antigen O111 were correlated with the serogroup O35; the strains having the somatic antigen O125, with the serogroup O6, 14, 24 and the strain containing the somatic antigen O55, with the serogroup O50. The presence of these strains in normal subjects only, gives a further witness that their role in enteric infections remains to be demonstrated.