[Characteristics of Escherichia serogroup O132:K isolated in intestinal diseases in monkeys].

The results obtained in the study of the main biological characteristics of 22 Escherichia strains, serogroup O132: K ., isolated from monkeys in the Sukhumi reserve are presented. For the first time Escherichia belonging to serovar O132: K .: H- have been detected; these organisms, in contrast to reference strain O132: K .: H28, possess a number of Shigella-like characteristics and are capable of intraepithelial parasitism in Shereny's test, which impedes their primary identification. The isolation of the above-mentioned cultures from live and dead monkeys with the clinical and pathologic diagnosis of catarrhal enteritis, colitis, enterocolitis, ulcerous colitis with unknown etiology, dysentery, from monkeys having had contacts with sick monkeys at the focus of clinical dysentery and in the process of prophylactic examination, as well as the pathogenicity of these strains for guinea pigs, as determined in Shigella-induced keratoconjunctivitis used as model infection, have allowed the authors to consider Escherichia, serovar O132: K .: H-, to be the etiological factor of E. coli infection in monkeys and to regard them as enteropathogenic. In this connection further research is necessary to find out the role of these microorganisms in the etiology of intestinal infections in animals; for this reason it is expedient to produce diagnostic agglutinating serum on an industrial scale.