[Edwardsiella tarda and Plesiomonas shigelloides. Their role as diarrhea agents and their epidemiology].

During a bacteriological investigation of infectious diarrhoea among the population of Mopti, a town situated on the river Niger in Mali, a high prevalence of Edwardsiella tarda and Plesiomonas shigelloides in diarrhoeic stools was demonstrated. Suspecting that the human infection originated from river fish, the prevalence of both bacterial species was studied in Zairese freshwater fish. E. tarda and P. shigelloides were isolated from nearly 60% of the examined fish. It is concluded that these organisms are part of the commensal intestinal flora of tropical freshwater fish and that the latter constitute a reservoir of human infection.