Experimental Food Poisoning in White Mice with Heat Stabile Paratyphoid Poisons.

Abstract

A study of human outbreaks of food poisoning indicates that a severely irritant substance, probably produced by representatives of the paratyphoid-enteritidis group and other bacteria when growing on foods rich in protein, exerts its action on the alimentary tract. A number of workers (Savage and White, 1 Branham, Robey and Day 2 and others) have sought for experimental evidence of such an. irritant. Most of the experiments were inconclusive or merely suggestive on account of the apparent insensitiveness of the animal in contrast to the human intestinal tube. Following the oral administration of living or dead paratyphoid bacilli a definite pathological reaction was either absent or unobtrusive; and delayed (5 to 10-14 days, Branham and Day) symptoms were produced unless a general infection was eventually set up. However, in this connection it must be recalled that Gärtner 3 as early as 1888 observed significant clinical and pathological manifestations in mice fed with meat previously contaminated with B. enteritidis and heated for 1 hour at 100°, A casual perusal of the literature indicates that the experiments of Gärtner have never been repeated on a large scale or with strains which have been recently isolated from outbreaks of food poisoning. The toxicity of these organisms is usually tested by parenteral injections of filtrates or boiled cultures and not by systematic feeding experiments (Bahr and Dyssegaard 4 ). These considerations suggested a renewed investigation. Although the studies are still in progress a number of interesting observations deserve wider recognition.