[Salmonella in free living snakes of Northern Germany (author's transl)].

Fourty-nine adders (Vipera berus L.) and thirty-one grass-snakes (Nitrix natrix L.) from northern Germany were investigated by cloacal swabs. The samples were usually taken in the field and preenriched in peptone water and further-on processed in three steps of tetrathionate. After each step of enrichment the material was transfered to salmonella shigella agar and fuchsine lactose agar (acc. to Endo). Salmonella screening was done by inoculation of lactose positive and lactose negative colonies into lysine iron agar (acc. to Edwards and Fife). Salmonella excretion was found in 59% of the adders and in 68% of the grass-snakes. Some specimens excreted several Salmonella species. 22 different species resp. variants were detected, of which 19 species belonged to subgenus III (Arizona). Subgenus I occured infrequently and was represented by S. duesseldorf, S. heidelberg and S. sunnycove. Three new triphasic variants S. III 17:Z10: e, n, x, z15: z56, S. III 38: (k): z35:z56 and S. III 50:z10:z:z56 of species already known and four so far unknown species S. III (6), 14: 1,v:z (Ar. 7a, 7c:23-31), S. III 21:1,v:z57 (Ar. 22:23-40a,40c), S. III 43:1,v:z56 (Ar. 21:23-38) and S. III 28:z10:z57 (Ar. 35:27-40a,40c) were discovered. The present results suggest that adders and grass-snakes in northern Germany represent autonomous reservoirs of salmonellae. There exist only few relations between the Salmonella species in these kinds of snakes and other European snakes.