Preliminary examinations on the enterotoxigenicity of isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae from seafoods.

One hundred and eighty-five seafood samples, consisting of 96 freshwater fish, 37 marine fish, 13 freshwater prawn, 13 marine prawn and 26 molluscs were screened for presence of Klebsiella. Out of these, 12 isolates of Klebsiella were identified, Four K. pneumoniae var. ozaenae were isolated from marine fish samples and eight K. pneumoniae var. pneumoniae, six from freshwater fish and two from freshwater prawns. All 12 isolates were tested for enterotoxigenicity by the vasopermeability factor test in rabbits, the mouse foot pad test, the latex agglutination test and the coagglutination test. One isolate of K. pneumoniae var pneumoniae, isolated from fresh water prawn was found enterotoxigenic.