Toads as natural reservoir of salmonella.

The investigation conducted on 329 toads for the presence of Salmonella, Arizona and Edwardsiella revealed that 36.7% toads were intestinal carriers of Salmonella. None of the toads proved positive for Arizona and Edwardsiella. The Salmonella population (S. brijbhumi) in the intestines of 5 of the 27 toads ranged from 1.5 X 10(9) to 2.5 X 10(10) organisms per gram of faecal matter. Some of the serotypes viz: S. tel-hashomer, S. brijbhumi and S. goverdhan were recovered more frequently than others. An unnamed serotype (4, 12, 27:k:-) and S. goverdhan var 1 + (1,9,12:k:1,6), hitherto undescribed in the literature, have also been reported.