Ecology and importance of bacterial' species of the family Vibrionaceae.

The bacterial species of the family Vibrionaceae, particularly the species of the genus Aeromonas (A. hydrophila and A. punctata and their subspecies were found to be relatively common in the running surface water in Czechoslovakia (the occurrence of A. salmonicida species was not studied). The strains of the so-called NAG-vibrios (Vibrio cholerae unrelated to the cholera vibrio 0 group 1) were also relatively frequent, but the positive isolates of Plesiomonas shigelloides were sporadic. The above described bacterial species occurred also in municipal sewage water and the strains of the Aeromonas genus were identified even in the drinking water of some wells and in foods. In the biological specimens from the human sources, namely in the feces of patients with diarrheal diseases, in secreta from the respiratory pathways, in the urine and occasionally in other material, there prevailed strains of the genus Aeromonas, especially A. hydrophila subsp. hydrophila and A. punctata subsp. caviae. Among the isolates from foods A. punctata subsp. caviae predominated. Positive isolates of the Aeromonas strains from the intestinal contents of cattle, domestic animals and some synantropic birds were rare. Importantly, a relatively great part of the isolates obtained from various sources (including the strains isolated from well water and foods) showed enterotoxigenic properties. The enterotoxigenicity was also observed in a great number of NAG-vibrio strains and in strains of Plesiomonas shigelloides. The occurrence of vibrios in the examined animal species was sporadic.